A 12-year-old girl was abducted and gang raped by four Muslims in Bithri Chainpur area of Bareilly, UP police said on Sunday. The incident took place Friday when the girl, a student of Class seven, was abducted and raped by the four accused, two of whom – Shahrukh and Owais – have been arrested, reports PTI.

The rapists abandoned the girl at Sahdana crossing on Saturday morning, from where she managed to reach her home in Nariyawal village and told her parents about the incident. The victim’s family lodged a complaint at the local police station, but have alleged that the police initially refused to add charges of rape in the FIR.

It was only when Hindu groups, including the Hindu Jagran Manch and Goraksha Dal, staged a protest on Sunday that the police relented and added charges of gang rape in the FIR and booked the accused under sections of POCSO Act.

According to the complaint, the victim’s father said that his daughter was given sedatives in a cold drink near her school and abducted. Two of the kidnappers have been identified as Shahrukh and Owais, who have been arrested, Inspector Shitanshu Sharma said. Another report has given the name of another accused as Nadeem Raza.

The girl’s family is now being pressurizing to settle the case by the accused, who are influential thugs in the area. They are being offered money and also being threatened that they will be kicked out from the village. The frightened family members say that their lives are in danger.

Just a few days back, it was revealed that Bareilly has become a hub of grooming/love jihad with around 7 such cases being reported every month.

Bareilly is a centre of sub-continental Islam, and home to the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam, aka Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat. Barelvi is a Sunni revivalist movement with strong Sufi influences and it is named after Bareilly, the hometown of its main leader Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Qadri (1856-1921). The beheaders of Kanhaiyalal were followers of the Barelvi school.