The Jharkhand Police on Saturday arrested two people for abducting five women working with a non-governmental organisation while they were performing a street play at a school in Khunti district’s Kochang, about 90 km from Ranchi, earlier this week. The accused took the women to a nearby forest at gunpoint, raped them, made videos of the act and threatened to distribute them.

Additional Director General of Police RK Mallik said four other accused have been identified, ANI reported. “In their statement, they revealed that they were of the view that anti-Pathalgadi sentiments will be portrayed in the NGO’s nukkad natak and they wanted to teach them a lesson,” Malik said. Pathalgadi is a practice adopted by some villages in Jharkhand to declare their gram sabha as the only sovereign authority, not the state or central government.

The women had gone to the village to create awareness on migration and human trafficking.

The Jharkhand Police also booked the head of the school in Kochang village for not reporting the incident to the police, PTI reported on Saturday. The police said that Father Alfonso Alien, who runs the school from which the women were abducted, was detained on Thursday. He was questioned for several hours and released on a personal bond. The police filed a case against Alien.

The police have also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for any information about the five suspects.