The armed men who abducted a 17-year-old girl from the Dobo-Kanderbera Road around 16km from the steel city on Wednesday night raped her multiple times, the girl has said in an FIR.

The girl, a student of an English-medium school, was out on a joyride in the car of her friend who had come home on vacation from outside the state. Five armed men intercepted the car at Purisili, halfway to Kanderbera. They assaulted the duo, demanded money, and then dragged the girl away toward an adjoining forested area.

The girl’s friend contacted the police and his friends. After the cops started a search operation in the area, the men had released the girl in Jugsalai, around 12km from the spot where she was abducted, around midnight.

She was traumatised and incoherent.

“The girl lodged an FIR late on Thursday night leading us to register a case. She has mentioned that more than one person raped her in a jungle,” said Satyadeo Singh, officer-in-charge, Kapali police outpost.

Singh said that initially there were five men, but more criminals had joined the gang after the girl was taken to the jungle.

The OC said the girl has already undergone a medical examination, and she would depose before a judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC in Seraikela court. The deposition could not be carried out on Friday as the court was closed due to the death of Jharkhand High Court Acting Chief Justice Prashant Kumar in Ranchi on Friday morning.

Through Thursday night, the police deployed sniffer dogs and forensic experts to hunt for clues to the identity of the rapists. The cops conducted random searches in villages such as Dobo, Kapali and Purisili.

The police are also learnt to have taken the girl and her friend to the spots where the criminals had assaulted them and where they had dragged her to.

Around six suspects have been taken into custody for interrogation, police sources said.

“We are making steady progress in the investigation of this sensational case,” said Seraikela-Kharsawan superintendent of police Karthik S. “We have taken several suspects into custody for interrogation and are hopeful of making a breakthrough in the case soon.”