Chittoor, May 24: Andhra Pradesh police arrested five minor boys from in Punganur town of Chittoor district, 570 km south of Hyderabad on Thursday. The minors were arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year old girl for the last two months, reported Hindustan Times.

The boys are in the age group of 16-17 years. According to the report, the accused were produced before a local court and subsequently shifted to juvenile home after judicial remand.  All the minors belong to Bhagat Singh Nagar in Punganur.

One of the accused is illiterate, while two are class VII students and one is in class X. One boy is an intermediate student. All the accused live in the girl’s neighbourhood and their parents work as porters. The girl belongs to a poor family. Her father died long ago, and mother is a labourer.

“The boys had first trapped the girl in their neighbourhood by offering her chocolates nearly two months ago and allegedly raped her,” reported Hindustan Times quoting, Punganur inspector of police P Sainath as saying. The boys raped the girl several times by threatening to kill her if she told anybody.

According to the report, On Wednesday night, the girl finally told her mother about the torture. The locals thrashed the two of the accused before handing them over to the police. The police also nabbed rest of the three boys on Thursday morning.  The minors were booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Hindustan Times quoted inspector Sainath as saying, “We have booked cases under Section 376 of Indian Penal Code, besides relevant sections of POCSO Act.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 24, 2018 11:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).