An 18-year-old woman from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district has alleged that she was sexually abused by around 62 men in the past five years, the Deccan Herald reported on Friday.

Those accused of the abuse are primarily the woman’s classmates, friends and neighbours. Some of them are minors, while others are aged between 20 and 40, representatives from the district Child Welfare Committee said.

The complainant shared details of the alleged abuse with volunteers from the Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society, who met her during a routine field visit to her school. The woman is a district-level athlete.

The social workers informed the Child Welfare Committee about the case 15 days ago. Since then, the police have filed two first information reports in the matter and arrested 15 people.

According to the police, the complainant’s neighbour, Subin, first harassed her by taking photographs of her in the nude when she was 13, reported The News Minute.

When she was 16, Subin sexually assaulted her. He reportedly recorded videos of the assault and shared them with others persons who went on to assault the woman over the next several years, while she was a minor.

Advocate N Rajeev, who heads the Pathanamthitta Child Welfare Committee, said the woman’s family was unaware of the abuse.

“She hadn’t shared anything with the mother,” Rajeev told The Indian Express. “Since the girl is a district-level athlete, she has attended various sports camps over the years. That situation might have facilitated this series of sexual abuse.”

Rajeev added that the woman had used her father’s mobile phone while participating in several sports camps, which in turn aided the police in identifying her abusers.

The complainant said her abusers used to contact her on her father’s mobile phone, mostly at night. She had saved their names on the device, Manorama News reported.

The woman’s alleged abusers will face charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, as she is a Dalit.

They have also been booked for aggravated rape, raping a minor, repeatedly raping the same woman, gangrape and sexual harassment under sections of the Indian Penal Code.

They will also face charges under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Information Technology Act for violating the woman’s privacy and engaging a child in the creation of sexually explicit images.