A 16-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by 10 persons for over six months in Maharashtra's Solapur district, the police said on Wednesday.
Five of the accused have been arrested under sections of gang-rape and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual offences Act (POCSO) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, they said.
The incident came to light after some locals saw the girl crying outside a temple in the city on Tuesday and alerted the police.
"The girl was disturbed, but after the police took her into confidence, she narrated the ordeal. A case was subsequently registered and five out of the 10 accused were arrested," a police official at Solapur said.
The girl and some of the accused were friends. They were later joined by other accomplices in the crime, she said.
The accused, among whom some are auto-rickshaw drivers, forcefully took her to various places over six months and allegedly raped her, the official said.
A case has been registered against them at Vijapur Naka police station and search for the other accused is on, she said.
The girl's father died sometime back and she was staying here with her mother, who did odd jobs to earn livelihood, the police added.
Man Rapes Teen, Burns Her With Cigarette Butts: Maharashtra Cops Dalit Teen Kidnapped, Raped In Uttar Pradesh, Accused Arrested: Cops Dalit Girl Gang-Raped In UP, 1 Arrested Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... Puja Khedkar's Father Granted Interim Protection From Arrest Till July 25 Vietnamese Most Powerful Communist Party Leader Nguyen Phu Trong Dies At 80 CUET UG Result Delay Jeopardized JNU Academic Calendars: VC Santishree Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.