Rourkela, April 14: Nine minors were today arrested on the charge of raping a Class X student near Chhengjharan village in Bisra police station limits of Sundergarh district, 13km from here.

The accused included three classmates of the 17-year-old victim who is a student of a local high school. The identity of the six others is yet to be established but all the accused are below the age of 17.

Police said the victim was on her way to Chhengjharan, two kilometres away from her village, on Thursday evening along with a girl friend to visit her brother-in-law, when she was sexually assaulted by the accused.

Police said all the nine boys, including main accused, who is the victim’s classmate, were arrested today from Chhengjharan.

Rourkela superintendent of police Himanshu Lal, who is monitoring the case, said: “We have arrested all the nine accused and sent them for medical examination.”

Lal said all the nine had been mentioned in the FIR.