Rourkela: Uditnagar Police have arrested three persons in connection with the alleged gangrape of 15-year-old girl at Bisra in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
She was allegedly gang-raped by two youths, in the age group of 25 to 30 years, while a third man in his 50s, unsuccessfully attempted to sexually assault her taking advantage of the situation.
According to police, the girl, who belongs to Uditnagar area of Rourkela, left home on Tuesday over some family dispute and while she was waiting at Rourkela railway station, one of the accused befriended her. He then took her to a house of a 55-year-old fish vendor at Bisra on the pretext of offering help and was joined by the second youth, who separately committed sexual assault on the minor victim. The fish vendor dropped the girl in Rourkela on Thursday afternoon after an unsuccessful attempt to rape her as she protested.
In a mean time, police had launched an investigation on basis of a missing complaint lodged by her family on Wednesday night. They had searched the railway station and collected clues about her whereabouts. Once the girl returned, police arrested one culprit from Rourkela and the other two from Bisra while they were preparing to escape.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said the family lodged the complaint late since the girl, on a previous occasion too, had left home without informing the parents.
The trio has been charged with gang-rape under Section 70 (2) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and POCSO and will be produced in a court on Friday, DIG (western range) Brijesh Rai said.
In September, two minor girls were allegedly gangraped by unidentified miscreants in a forested patch behind the Birsa Munda multi-purpose stadium under Plant Site police limits in Rourkela, while another was assaulted by five persons in two separate episodes under RN Pali police limits.
