RANCHI: Five women were gang-raped at gunpoint by at least half a dozen men on Tuesday when they were on a visit to a village in Khunti district to create awareness on migration and human trafficking. It came to light a day later when the survivors contacted a social worker, who informed the police.No arrests have been made so far. The police said they had identified suspects and have launched a hunt to nab them. The police on Thursday filed an FIR and Ranchi DIG Amol V Homkar formed three teams to probe the incident that happened at Kochang village.Preliminary investigations point towards the involvement of people associated with the Pathalgarhi movement in tribal villages of the state, according to the police. The movement involves putting up giant plaques that declare their gram sabhas as the only sovereign authority and bans ‘outsiders’ in their area.“The survivors, in their statement, alleged that the accused threatened them not to enter the area without their permission to propagate the government’s agenda,” Homkar told TOI on Thursday.On Tuesday, an NGO team went to perform a street play to create awareness on human trafficking in the village. A few unidentified men came and took them away on gunpoint in the same vehicle in which the performers had reached the village, she alleged.“The survivors said their male colleagues were beaten and made to drink their own urine before being locked up in the car. The culprits then took the survivors in the forest, gang-raped them and filmed the entire episode on their phones. The survivors said that they were held captive for four hours,” she added.Following intervention by the police headquarters, an emergency meeting of officers was held in Khunti on Wednesday. “We have identified the survivors and the men accompanying them. All of them are adults. An FIR has been lodged and a medical board has been set up. The board is conducting medical examination of the survivors,” Homkar said on Thursday.

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