An 11-year-old girl was given sedatives before being raped multiple times over the period of seven months by more than 15 men at a posh apartment complex in Chennai.

According to reports, the sedatives were given to the girl by a security guard, who is one of the accused in the case. Media reports said the security guard worked in a hospital before his company posted him at the Chennai apartment complex, and that it was at the hospital that he learnt about the sedatives which were given to women during childbirth. Same sedatives were used on the girl, said the police.

The police have recovered syringes from the apartment complex. They are also trying to determine what other sedatives could have been given to the minor victim.

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The police had arrested 18 people in connection with the alleged rape of the minor girl at an apartment building in Chennai. They suspect that more men could be involved in the horrific crime that came as a shock to the people in the Tamil Nadu capital.

Earlier this week, lawyers at the Mahila Court in Chennai thrashed some of the 18 accused. Visuals showed a huge group of lawyers beating the accused in the Chennai rape case black and blue after they were brought to the court.

The accused could be heard crying for mercy even as punches and kicks of the furious lawyers kept on hitting them. The lawyers are seen dragging one of the accused down a flight of stairs and beat him up as he pleads for mercy. Though the police present in the court try to intervene, they are vastly outnumbered by the lawyers.

Among those arrested are security guards, elevator operators and the gardener of the building.

Read More | Chennai shocker: 11-year-old girl raped for several months, 18 arrested

According to media reports, the minor girl was allegedly sedated and given spiked soft drinks. The crime was reportedly video-graphed by the accused, who later blackmailed the victim threatening to release the video online, said the police.

The incident came to light when the minor girl finally confided in her elder sister. She narrated her ordeal to her sister as she suffered from severe stomach ache. The sister brought it to the notice of their parents, after which the victim’s mother approached the police and a complaint was filed on Sunday.

The girl reportedly told the police that she was first raped by elevator operator Ravi Kumar (66). After two days, he got two more men to rape her and the number of men kept on increasing.

The accused allegedly took the girl to different isolated places in the complex such as the basement, public washroom, terrace, and gym, to rape her.