Minor Gets Pregnant After Being Abused By 400 People Over 6 Months

A 16-year-old girl in the Indian state of Maharashtra was raped by hundreds of people over a period of six months and became pregnant during that time, police said.

The unnamed girl — now two months pregnant — was allegedly raped by 400 people, including a police officer, Beed police superintendent Raja Ramasamy was cited as saying by The Free Press Journal.

The police superintendent said three people have been arrested in the case as of Sunday, ANI news agency reported.

According to the complaint lodged by the victim, the girl lost her mother two years ago, and her father arranged her marriage around eight months ago, a report by India Today said. However, she ran away after she was allegedly beaten and ill-treated by her husband and in-laws.

The girl then began to face sexual exploitation in the city of Ambajogai in Beed district, where she came to look for a job after her father refused to take her back.

Two men allegedly promised to give her a job, but she was sexually assaulted instead, Orissa Post reported. She was then raped by hundreds of other people in the next several months, according to the outlet.

One of the rapists was allegedly a policeman who sexually assaulted the victim when she tried to file a complaint, according to India Today.

"I have been abused by many people. I went to Ambajogai police station several times to file a complaint, but the police took no action against the culprits. Instead, I was harassed by a policeman," the girl said in a statement to the Child Welfare Committee.

Authorities have registered a case under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act as well as rape and molestation sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The case is still being investigated by police.

The Child Welfare Committee has initiated the process to abort the girl's fetus, according to Orissa Post.

Tamil Nadu parliament member Vanathi Srinivasan said she was "deeply anguished" by the case and described the situation in Maharashtra as "very grim."

"[The government of Maharashtra] must take serious steps to ensure that such incidents do not happen. We also demand the strictest punishment for the guilty," Srinivasan said in a statement.

Similar arrests were recently made on 33 people, including two minors, in the state after the group allegedly blackmailed and repeatedly gang-raped a 15-year-old girl at different places between January and September this year.