Eight men were arrested on Monday by the Varkala police on charges of gang-raping a woman and a minor girl, allegedly after holding them captive for six days.
The accused – Midhun, 20, Thanseen, 18, Shamim, 34, Ahmed, 20, Shafeeq, 24, Aashiq, 24, Ibrahim, 23, and Sajeer, 24, all hailing from Varkala – were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody. The police said one of the accused, an autorickshaw driver, was in a relationship with the minor girl, and had taken her along with her relative, aged 24, to a house at Vettoor, where they were locked up and sexually abused by him and his friends from August 9.
The two escaped on August 15, and lodged a complaint with the police, after which the accused were arrested.
