Bhubaneswar: Odisha witnessed a scene out of the yet-to-be released ‘The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond’ with a youth allegedly trapping a young woman with fake identity and later raping her in Bhubaneswar.
The accused, identified as Irfan Ansir from Karnataka, was arrested by Saheed Nagar police on Sunday. Four to five different IDs have been seized from his possession.
According to sources, the accused befriended the woman, a native of Bhadrak, on Instagram about 4 months ago by posing as Jayraj Sharma. As their relationship deepened, he was allegedly “coaxing, luring and coercing” her into religious conversion while promising to marry her. He took her to a four-star hotel in Bhubaneswar, where he reportedly brutally assaulted her for over four hours. He was apprehended while planning to take her outside the state.
While police are yet issue an official statement on the incident, sources added that a case has been registered against the accused under charges of rape, criminal conspiracy (Section 120B IPC), and kidnapping. An investigation is underway from a possible ‘Love Jihad’ angle.
In 2024, Mahila Police here had arrested a Kashmiri man after a woman filed a complaint that he forced her to undergo religious conversion and marry him. The man, identified as Samir Mansoor, who claimed to be hailing from Bihar and staying in Kashmir, was nabbed while trying to leave from Odisha by train.
