- The shocking attack on the cousins ages 14 and 16 sparks outrage worldwide
- Two police officers and three brothers are arrested
- A total of five men are in custody so far
- “We are scared,” says Renu Devi, a woman in the village
Katra village, India (CNN) — Three brothers have confessed to involvement in the gang rape of two teenage girls in India, a police officer told CNN.
The men have pleaded guilty to the rape charges but have not admitted to killing the girls, police spokesman Mukesh Saxena said Sunday.
All five known suspects, including two police officers, have been arrested, he said.
The police complaint also names two unknown people in the case. Investigations are trying to determine their identity, Saxena said.
The assault on the cousins, ages 14 and 16, sparked outrage in the community in Uttar Pradesh state. After being gang raped, they were hanged from a mango tree, police said.
Villagers streamed into the homes of the girls’ relatives, weeping behind their customary veils. The mother of one of the girls said her daughter wanted to become a doctor to escape grinding poverty.
The attackers, she said, deserved the same fate that befell her daughter.
“Hang them in public,” she said.
CNN cannot identify the relatives or victims under Indian law.
In the northern village where the attack occurred, crowds surrounded the girls for hours after their bodies were found Wednesday. They accused authorities of siding with the suspects and blocked them from taking the girls down from their nooses unless arrests are made.
In addition to possible rape and murder charges, the officers face charges of conspiracy in the crime and negligence of duty after villagers accused them of failing to respond when they first pinpointed the suspects.
An autopsy confirmed that the girls had been raped and strangled, according to authorities. They were cremated the same day the bodies were found, in line with Hindu customs, said Mukesh Saxena, a local police official.
“We are scared,” said Renu Devi, a woman in the village where the attack occurred.
“If this could happen to them, it could happen to us also.”
Police under scrutiny
Devi has reason to fear. The girls were out in the orchard relieving themselves Tuesday night when the attackers grabbed them, authorities said.
Toilets are rare in the village, forcing women to wander away into fields in the dead of night.
“There’s no toilet. Where can the girls go?” shouted Jamuni Devi, another woman from the village. “No one has done anything for sanitation.”
Indians have more access to mobile phones than to toilets, according to a
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