Hazaribagh, Aug. 3: Three schoolgirls were allegedly gang-raped by three youths at an abandoned house at a village in Ichak block, about 17km from the district headquarters, on Thursday night.

Police, who had initially thought that the incident was the fallout of an affair gone wrong, lodged an FIR and arrested the accused last night after a medical examination of the girls confirmed rape.

Subhash Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Mehta alias Poonam and Rajkumar alias Raju, aged between 20 and 25, were forwarded to Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan Central Jail today.

According to police, the youths are residents of Jalon village, which is located near Kariatpur from where the girls hail. In fact, one of the victims knew Raju, who took her and her friends to the vacant house in Barwan village.

Sources said the victims, both 17 and Class X students of Chanda High School, had appeared for an exam on Thursday after which they went missing. “Due to ongoing exams, the school gave over early at 1pm on Thursday. However, the girls did not return home, prompting their families to launch a search in the neighbourhood. When all efforts to trace them drew blank, they approached police,” said a resident of Kariatpur.

During investigations, police found out that the teens were last spotted with three youths near the school. Raju was subsequently picked up from his home for interrogations on Thursday evening. He broke down and revealed that the girls were in an abandoned house about 1km away from the school.

Police reached the spot around 6am on Friday and found the girls in a dishevelled state. They claimed they had been raped all night by Raju and his friends. Subhash and Sanjay were picked up on Friday itself.

“From what the victims told us it appears that Raju had befriended one of the girls. After school on Thursday, he asked her to go out with him. The girl agreed and even took along two friends. Two of Raju’s friends subsequently joined the group and they took the girls to the house. However, things took an ugly turn when the youths forced themselves on the girls,” said Hazaribagh deputy superintendent of police Ratneshwar Thakur.

Sexual assault FIR

Ranchi: A 19-year-old girl from Vendora, a village in Chainpur block about 52km from Gumla district headquarters, today registered a case with police, accusing three unidentified youths of raping her on Thursday. Daughter of a farmer, the girl had gone to Chainpur market. On her way back, the youths allegedly accosted her and dragged her to a field where they raped her. No arrest has been made.