Gaya: A man was tied up and his 45-year-old wife and 14-year-old daughter gang-raped in front of him in Gaya district late on Wednesday evening.

The couple and their teenaged daughter were going from Guraru to their village on a bike when eight or nine men - most of them with their faces covered - waylaid them in an area under Konch police station, around 127km south-west of Patna.

The criminals snatched Rs 2,000 from the man in his early fifties, who dispenses medicines from his village home, and jewellery from the woman.

After that they tied up the man with a rope and three of the criminals took turns to assault the woman and her daughter.

Two other bikers, who had also been robbed and tied-up, witnessed the assault.

After the gang fled and the cops were informed, Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajiv Mishra rushed to the crime scene and ordered raids to nab the culprits.

He said 20 persons have been rounded up and the women have identified two of the offenders.

Police sources said the man in his complaint has stated that his wife was raped and the daughter molested - probably because of the stigma attached to rape.

The woman, a mother of four, has been taken to Gaya for medical examination.

Patna zone inspector-general (IG) Naiyyer Hasnain Khan said Konch police station house officer (SHO) Rajiv Ranjan Singh has suspended for dereliction of duty. Departmental proceedings, too, have been ordered against the SHO. The incident has been taken in all seriousness and the culprits would be brought to book, the IG said.

He has also directed the Gaya SSP to constitute a special investigation team to crack the case.

Till March this year, 289 cases of rape have been registered in the state. Last year, 1,198 rape cases were registered in Bihar, and the number was 1,008 in 2016.