Another Gangrape Incident Rocks Odisha’s Rourkela City

Rourkela: Another incident of gang rape has been reported from Odisha’s Rourkela, raising concern about safety of women in the steel city.

In the incident which took place near Raghunathpali Century Park on Sunday, a minor girl was allegedly gang-raped by five men when she had gone to a restaurant in Civil township. The matter came to the fore after the survivor narrated her ordeal and lodged a complaint with Raghunathpali police on Tuesday.

“The family lodged a complaint yesterday alleging that some youths abducted her when she came out of a restaurant on September 22 night. They then took her to a secluded spot and raped her before dropping dumping her on the road when two other youths sexually assaulted her,” DIG Brijesh Kumar Rai, who officiates as Rourkela SP, told the media.

The SP added that multiple teams headed by Additional SP P S Nayak has been formed to investigate the matter, which will be directly supervised by the SDPO. “We are hopeful of nabbing them soon,” he said, adding that police along with a scientific team and dog squad inspected the crime spots.

In the second incident, the youths picked up the girl in a motorcycle and raped her near the library and defunct millet cafe along ring road opposite the administrative building of RSP under Plant Site police limits.

Three persons have been detained by Rourkela and are currently being interrogated, sources said.

The incident occurred within 24 hours of the gangrape of two minors in the steel city.

On Saturday evening, two teenage girls hailing from Jharkhand were allegedly gang-raped while returning to a close relative’s house in a slum in the industrial city after buying footwear from a local market.  The same day, a school girl was molested by a PET teacher at a private school along Gurudwara road.