India: Teenage girl raped by 27 men after being lured to hotel on pretext of employment

A teenage girl in India was allegedly raped by up to 27 men after being lured to a hotel on the promise of a job. The 17-year-old was taken to the Northern city of Jaipur by a couple living in her hometown of Mangolpuri in Delhi on the pretext of a job. She was in need of employment because her alcoholic father had run the family into debt, the Hindustan Times reported.

The girl said she was confined to a room at the Indraprastha Hotel, denied food and repeatedly raped by the gang which included hotel staff, for more than 24 hours on August 30. She managed to escape her captors the next day and made a formal police complaint when she reached Delhi on September 1.

Six men have been arrested in connection with the gang rape. The rest of the suspects are on the run or have not been identified. A Delhi police officer, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they had confirmed the involvement of 10 people.

He said: "She approached her neighbours Rocky and Rani to help find her a job on August 29. The couple said she could earn good money at Indraprastha Hotel and left with her for Jaipur the same day. On reaching the hotel (on August 30), she was reportedly confined to a room and raped by 11 men. She said the first two men entered the room together and took turns to rape her. After a few minutes, another group walked in and raped her. This went on for over 24 hours," the officer said.

"Based on her complaint we have arrested six men and we are studying the CCTV footage from the hotel to nab the rest of the suspects." Six others who were part of the alleged prostitution racket were identified and will be arrested soon, police said.

"The girl told us the couple had helped many women get 'jobs'. We suspect they are part of an ongoing racket," an official said.

It's the latest report of a sexual assault in India which has a grim record for sex related crimes. Last week three men were convicted for the gang-rape of a young Japanese woman in Jaipur and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Since the fatal rape of student Jyoti Singh Pandey in Delhi in 2012, India has come under the spotlight for its high incidence of sex crimes, including attacks on tourists from Switzerland and Denmark. The attack led to a major reform of India's rape laws, speeding up trials and increasing penalties.

In 2014, a spate of rapes in Uttar Pradesh – including some which saw the victims being hung from trees after being abused – caused a huge backlash, with dozens of people urging the Indian government to tighten its laws on rape and to persecute perpetrators who go largely unpunished.