Chennai,  Two sisters, aged 28 and 30, and a 48-year-old man who runs a small shop in Chennai have been arrested for alleged serial rape and sexual assault of five minor girls, aged between four and 13 years, police said on Monday.

Police had conducted raids on the shop of Perumal after a tip-off that he was selling banned gutka products. During the raid, police got hold of his mobile phone to get details of those who supply gutka to him.

While checking the phone's photo gallery, police found more than 50 videos of minor girls being raped. On initial investigation, the police team thought that he had downloaded child porn videos but on close scrutiny, it was found that Perumal himself was the person who was indulging in the act.

A police team, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kilpauk, Karthikeyan, and Inspector Rajeshwari, interrogated Perumal who revealed that he was raping the minor girls for the past six months. He also claimed that two women, who were sisters, were his accomplices in the act and that they had even let him rape their own daughters.

Perumal said that one of the women had an affair with him and she introduced her sister also to him.

Karthikeyan said that the women allowed Perumal rape their daughters as payment for goods they bought from his shop. Perumal filmed the sexual act he had indulged with the two minor girls as also three other girls who were their friends. The three girls, according to police, were too young to know what had happened to them.

The parents of the three other girls told police that the two women used to take care of their daughters when they were going to work.

Perumal and the two women are in judicial custody with the women lodged in Puzhal central prison and Perumal was sent to Chengalpet sub-jail.