School girls hold placards during a silent protest rally against the recent rape cases of two teenage girls in Jharkhand on May 8 this year.
The unnamed victim, from eastern Bihar, said she had been routinely raped by 19 people, three teachers and 16 students, over the course of six months - police revealed Thursday.
Anuj Kumar, sub-inspector of the Ekma police station in eastern Bihar state told CNN the girl was initially raped by three or four boys in the first incident.
But after other schoolmates learned of the first rape, they threatened to expose her and raped her themselves.
The victim contacted the police on July 6 and a complaint was filed with police who are now investigating.
So far, the police have arrested the principal, two teachers and four boys at the school in connection with the allegations.
'We are investigating,' said Vijay Kumar Verma, deputy inspector general in Saran, a district of Bihar state.
'We will take warrants out from the court and conduct raids' to catch the rest of the boys.
According to Kumar the suspects are denying involvement in the incidents and have said they 'did not do it'.
The horrifying incident casts a further shadow on the issue of rape within Indian society.
A string of violent rapes and murders of young women caused widespread protests across the country as activists call for the government to act.
The Indian government responded in April by introducing a temporary law which guarantees the death sentence to the rapists of minor victims and gang-rapists.
In April this year an 8-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped before having her throat slit in a violent attack which saw thousands of protesters take to the streets.
Government statistics show that nearly 100 sexual assaults take place in India every day.
Comment: India has got a serious freaking rape problem and it's disgusting. And the fact that there were 40,000 rapes reported in India in 2016 and the victims were children in 40 percent of those cases, is truly stomach turning. It remains to be seen if the death penalty will have any deterrent effect, but the fact that such a strong penalty would even be needed points to something seriously, seriously wrong.
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