A 13-year-old girl in Tinsukia district of upper Assam was allegedly gangraped by four persons on suspicion that she had stolen a mobile phone from one of them, police said on Friday. Five persons, including a woman, were arrested. The incident occurred at Sukanpukhuri tea estate under Makum police station on the intervening night of January 2-3 after one of the accused, Jogeshwar Mali, lost his cellphone.

His wife Tusu suspected that the girl, who is from the same tea estate, had stolen the mobile.

Police said Tusu incited her husband and his friends to punish the girl and the four caught hold of the girl at a lonely stretch of the estate and raped her.

The police on Friday arrested Tusu, Mali and his friends Sanesh Nayak, Tirnath Mali, Ram Chandra Patnaik after the girl told the family about the incident.

The mobile is yet to be found.