Bhubaneswar: Police in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur have arrested two brothers for allegedly raping a minor girl over the past one year.
The accused have been identified as Bhagyadhar Das (60) and Panchanan Das (58), who worked at a mutt in Kujang block frequented by the 15 year-old.
Besides raping her for multiple times over an extended period, the duo, along with an accomplice identified as Tulu Babu, allegedly also attempted to bury the girl alive in a desperate bid to cover up their crime when they found out that she was pregnant.
According to police sources, the accused offered to pay for and facilitate an abortion. They lured her to a location where a ditch dug up on the ground. The accused then threatened to bury her alive in it if she refused to go for an abortion. The survivor, somehow, managed to escape and narrated the ordeal to her father. She then underwent a medical examination at the district headquarters hospital, and a case was registered at Kujang police station on basis of a complaint by her father.
In his complaint, her father further alleged that a local panchayat official had offered him money to hush up the matter and warned him against reporting the matter to police.
“A case was filed against three individuals under sections of rape and POCSO Act. While the two brothers have been arrested, the third accused is absconding,” said Tirtol SDPO Chinmay Raut, adding that a manhunt has been launched to track him down.
This incident has come barely four days after an 18-year-old woman out to celebrate the birthday of her uncle’s daughter was allegedly kidnapped by two men, taken to a farmland and raped at Chandgarh Majurai village within Jagatsinghpur police limits.
