While the incident is believed to have taken place three months ago, it came to light after a video footage started doing the rounds and some journalists alerted the police. On August 8, a private TV channel aired the footage.

The Birbhum police have arrested six persons from Battala village, to which the girl belonged. The girl has been shifted to a home in Rampurhat.

Bharati Mutsuddhi, one of the members of the women’s panel who met her on Monday, said she was traumatised and couldn’t recall the exact date or even month of the incident. The provocation for the assault on the girl was that she was having an affair with a boy belonging to a different community.

The Birbhum Adivasi Gaota (an apex tribal body) has alleged that owners of a stone-crushing unit in the area had circulated the video footage to malign the tribal society as a whole.

The tribals have been protesting against illegal stone quarrying and crushing units at Rampurhat and Mohammadbazar belts in Birbhum district.