5 arrested after 22yo Japanese tourist gang-raped for weeks in India

Five men have been arrested for kidnapping a young Japanese woman, who managed to escape after some three weeks of repeated gang-rape at gunpoint near a Buddhist holy site in Bodh Gaya, a popular Indian tourist spot.

A gang of men, some of whom presented themselves as tour guides, reportedly raped a Buddhist student, who came from Japan, after kidnapping and taking her to Paro village in the East Indian state of Bihar.

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The student checked into a hotel in Kolkata in November. According to a complaint filed with the local police, the woman was first taken from the city of Kolkata to a beach town of Digha on November 23, where she was forced to withdraw 75,000 rupees ($1,200) from an ATM

Kolkata joint police commissioner Pallab Kanti Ghosh said.

There she was reportedly handed over to other two men and taken to a village, where the woman was confined in a secluded basement room and repeatedly raped by five men during the course of some three weeks.

a police officer who is part of the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The woman then reportedly managed to escape to Varanasi, a city in the neighboring state. Afterwards, she reached Kolkata where she lodged a complaint of molestation and fraudulent withdrawal of money, but later, giving a statement before the magistrate, she alleged rape.

Japan's consul-general in Kolkata, Kazumi Endo, told AFP.

India, the world's second most populous country, has seen lots of rape cases, with many of them underreported - but some, such as the fatal gang rape of a medical student in New Delhi two years ago, sparking global outcry.