GAYA/KOLKATA: A Japanese girl was allegedly confined and raped by a duo in Bihar's Gaya with the accused having been arrested on Friday by a joint team of Kolkata and Gaya Police."A joint team of Kolkata and Gaya Police arrested two brothers — Zahir and Shahid — from their house in Taro village under Fatehpur police station of Gaya district for confining and raping a Japanese girl," said Senior Superintendent of Police, Gaya, Nishant Kumar Tiwari.After contacting the Japanese consulate, the girl had lodged an FIR at Park Street police station in Kolkata that the duo along with a few of their accomplices had confined her since November 26 and gangraped her, he said.According to police, the girl was befriended by one Wasim Khan on November 20 in Kolkata who spoke Japanese and with whom she went to Gaya."Once there, Wasim molested her and took Rs 76,000 from her bank account before handing her over to the duo (Zahir and Shahid). There (Gaya), the brothers confined her till the end of December and repeatedly gangraped her," said Special CP (Crime) of Kolkata Police, Pallab Kanti Ghosh.Later, they put the girl on a bus bound for Varanasi where she got in touch with her friends and contacted the Japanese consulate in Kolkata, Ghosh said.After returning to Kolkata on December 26, she lodged the FIR following which Wasim was arrested. Acting on information collected from him during interrogation, a Kolkata Police team went to Gaya and arrested the duo and brought them to Kolkata.The two brothers were arrested on charges of rape and cheating the Japanese girl, the Gaya SSP added. ||||| Police in India arrested three people for allegedly gang-raping a 22-year-old Japanese research academic near a Buddhist pilgrimage centre in eastern India, officials said on Friday. 
 
 Police were looking for two more suspects who also allegedly kept the Japanese woman as a hostage for nearly three weeks in a village near Bodh Gaya, a town 80 miles south of Patna, the capital of Bihar state, officer Akhilesh Singh said. 
 
 The woman managed to escape on 26 December and reached her base at Kolkata, where she filed a police complaint. She has been studying life in rural India for some time, Singh said. 
 
 A Kolkata-based tourist guide had taken the Japanese woman to Bodh Gaya to show her the Buddhist pilgrimage centre where Gautama Buddha is said to have obtained enlightenment under a tree. He was joined by four others in keeping her in captivity and raping her, police said. 
 
 Two of the arrests were made in the area on Friday and one took place earlier this week in Kolkata, police added. 
 
 India has a long history of tolerance of sexual violence, but a series of high-profile rape cases have triggered strong public outrage in recent years, leading to tougher anti-rape laws. 
 
 India has doubled prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalised voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. 
 
 The law also makes it a crime for police officers to refuse to open cases when complaints are made. ||||| NEW DELHI — Five men have been arrested in connection with the alleged abduction and rape of a Japanese woman who said she was held captive for 12 days, the Indian police said Saturday. 
 
 The young woman, who had been staying in Kolkata, said she had been lured by a man posing as a tour guide to travel to the Gaya district in the state of Bihar, the site of one of India’s holiest Buddhist temples, according to the Kolkata police. When she arrived in Gaya, two other men were waiting, she told police, saying the two held her at gunpoint and raped her. 
 
 The police said the episode occurred sometime after her arrival in Kolkata on Nov. 20 and that she had first been taken to Digha, a resort in West Bengal by men involved in the case. The Press Trust of India, a news service, quoted the police as saying that she had been forced to remove money from her bank account. 
 
 Anxiety in India over violence against women has been very high since the December 2012 gang rape of an Indian woman on a Delhi bus, an attack so brutal that she died of her injuries. 
 
 Details of the latest case, including how long the woman was reportedly held, varied widely as the police continued their investigation Saturday. It was unclear how two of the five men were involved in the case. 
 
 The police said that at least one of the five men spoke Japanese and that two were brothers. 
 
 A senior police official in Kolkata, Pallab Kanti Ghosh, said on Saturday that after being held, the woman went to the city of Varanasi, where she told a group of Japanese tourists what had happened. She then returned to Kolkata and the Japanese Consulate put her in touch with the police in late December, Mr. Ghosh said. 
 
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 It remained unclear if she had been released by the men or had escaped. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Yogita Limaye reports from Delhi on another sexual violence case in India 
 
 Five men have been arrested in India charged with kidnapping and repeatedly raping a Japanese student. 
 
 Police in the eastern city of Calcutta say the assaults took place over a period of more than a month from 23 November and in at least two locations. 
 
 They say an organised gang is suspected of targeting single women tourists. 
 
 Increasing numbers of rape cases are being reported and highlighted in India, prompting widespread outrage. 
 
 Pallav Kanti Ghosh, a Calcutta police commissioner, told BBC Hindi that two of the men - said to be brothers - approached the 23-year-old victim as tourist guides after she arrived in the city and checked into a hotel in an area popular with foreign tourists. 
 
 Trafficked at Buddhist holy site 
 
 "One of the men spoke very fluent Japanese," he said. 
 
 "They said: 'We are guides and want to take you sight-seeing.' 
 
 "They took her to Digha [a beach resort in West Bengal state] on 23 November. There they sexually assaulted her and robbed her of 76,000 rupees [$1,200] using her ATM card." 
 
 She was then taken to Bodh Gaya, the holiest site of Buddhism and a major pilgrimage and tourist centre. 
 
 "There, the men handed her over to other gang members," Mr Ghosh said. 
 
 The woman was held captive for several weeks and the assaults continued, he said. 
 
 In late December she managed to reach the city of Varanasi from where she travelled to Calcutta, lodging a complaint via the Japanese consulate on 26 December. 
 
 Mr Ghosh said three of the men were arrested near Bodh Gaya and two in Calcutta. The Hindustan Times newspaper said some were held after their mobile phone calls were intercepted. 
 
 He said police were searching for other members of what he called an organised gang, several of whom are reportedly proficient in Japanese. 
 
 Sexual violence in India has been in the spotlight since a student was fatally gang-raped on a bus in Delhi two years ago. 
 
 That and other cases have prompted a domestic and international outcry. 
 
 Other foreign women targeted by gang-rapists include a Swiss cyclist assaulted in central India in 2013 and a Danish tourist attacked in Delhi a year ago. 
 
 Rape laws have been toughened in response to the crimes but correspondents say this has failed to act as a deterrent.
– Another horrific gang-rape story is emerging out of India, this time involving a 22-year-old Japanese woman who police say was held for at least 12 days, reports the New York Times. Police have arrested five men, including two brothers, reports the BBC. Authorities say that the young academic was staying in Kolkata when a man who speaks fluent Japanese lured her away by posing as a tour guide. He and other accomplices then allegedly held her in a village near Bodh Gaya, a popular destination because of its Buddhist pilgrimage center, and repeatedly raped her, reports the Guardian. Details of the case are still coming together, and reports differ substantially. Most accounts say she eventually escaped and reached authorities in Varanasi, for example, while the Times of India says her captors put her on a bus. Some reports say she was held 12 days, some three weeks, and others (including the BBC) for more than a month. All seem to agree, though, that gangs are preying on female Japanese tourists. The men have been charged with gang rape, wrongful confinement, kidnapping, molestation, and criminal conspiracy.