The police on Friday arrested 10 men for allegedly gangraping two sisters, including a minor, in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur.

The assault took place late on Thursday night when the sisters – aged 19 and 16 – were returning with the elder one’s fiancé on a motorcycle from the Tumgaon village after celebrating the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan.

Three of the accused intercepted them near Bhansoj and allegedly robbed them of cash and mobile phones. The other seven accused then reached the spot on four motorcycles and threatened the complainants, Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal told The Times of India.

The accused persons took them to an isolated spot away from the main road and allegedly raped them. They also assaulted the man who was accompanying them and fled.

The complainants managed to reach the local police patrol unit from where they were taken to the nearest police station, where a first information report was lodged.

“The men had used four bikes and the victims managed to memorise the registration number of one of the bikes,” the Raipur senior superintendent of police told The Indian Express. “Based on this and some more description provided by victims we traced the accused. Three of them were traced to a railway station before they could escape.”

The accused have been booked under Sections 376D (gang rape), 376DA (gang rape on women under sixteen years of age) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, said the police.

They also revealed that one of the arrested men, Poonam Thakur, is a serial offender and is accused in five previous criminal cases. He was released on bail just three weeks ago in another rape case.

The police said that Thakur’s father Laxminarayan Singh Thakur is a local Bharatiya Janata Party worker based in Mandir Hasaud, according to PTI.