A current and former member of Aum Shinrikyo were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of detaining a female follower who attempted to escape from a cult facility in Kiso-Fukushima, Nagano Prefecture, police said.
About 220 investigators were mobilized for a search of the facility in the morning. It was the first major raid on an Aum-related facility since those made in response to the various heinous crimes that occurred in 1995 and for which its members now stand accused.
During the search, police found a man in his 30s detained in a solitary cell and had him rushed to a hospital by ambulance.