Cuttack/Puri: After more than a month of intensive pursuit, Cantonment police in Odisha’s Cuttack have arrested the alleged mastermind in the horrific gang rape of a Plus III college student, which took place in a hotel in Puri last year.
The 22-year-old accused, identified as Satyabrat Parida, was apprehended from Jajpur road railway station on Wednesday morning. He was working with a private firm in Delhi.
The crime took place in November 2025 fol
lowing which a complaint was lodged by the survivor’s father at Cantonment police station.
According to police sources, Parida was in a relationship with the survivor, a young woman from the Jajpur area who was pursuing her undergraduate studies in Cuttack, and they went on a trip to Puri along with his three associates, all hailing from the Binjharpur area. The duo had befriended over social media. “After taking her to Puri, he misbehaved with her and sexually assaulted her. A special team from Cantonment Police Station arrested him in Jajpur while he was returning from Delhi,” ACP Sankar Chakraborty of Zone-2 told the media.
Two of his accomplices were also apprehended during the operation, while a fourth suspect is still at large. “There is a principal accused and three others who assisted him; two out of those three have been arrested,” he added.