New Delhi, March 18:: For the first time, three Indian Army officers deputed to the United Nations peacekeeping force have been accused of rape.

A Lieutenant Colonel and two Majors of the Indian Army, presently with the North Kivu brigade of the Mission of the UN in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), were detained last Wednesday by South African police after a woman resident of Plettenberg Bay in Pretoria charged them with rape.

They were away from MONUC headquarters in Kinshasa on a holiday to Pretoria.

India has the largest contingent in MONUC with more than 4,300 personnel.

The mission was established in February 2000 to stem the instability that continues through ethnic wars despite elections in 2006. Currently, Indian security personnel are part of peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Ethiopia and Lebanon.

The three officers were picked up from a bed-and-breakfast hotel in Mossel Bay on March 12 and kept in police custody for more than a day.

Sources said that the incident first came to light during a meeting with a South African delegation on defence cooperation in New Delhi last week.

A senior Army officer was asked to ascertain the facts and suggest measures to sort out the embarrassment.

Later, an officer from the Indian Embassy in Johannesburg was rushed to Plettenberg and the three were released from the police station. Sources told The Indian Express that Defence Minister A K Antony has asked for a report on the incident on how the officers managed to go to the “unsecured place” while with the UN.