Kataka: Police in Odisha’s Kataka have arrested the sixth suspect connected to the alleged early-morning gang rape of a 26-year-old Bhubaneswar mall employee along the Cuttack-Chandbali highway.
The 19-year-old youth, a resident of Kendrapada district, had sold his mobile phone after the crime and fled first to Kolkata and then to Visakhapatnam in an attempt to evade arrest. Acting on information that he had returned to the area by train, a special police team apprehended him near OMP Square. Salepur SDPO Biranchi Narayan Pati said the accused was produced in court after a medical examination, adding that his identity would remain undisclosed pending a test identification parade.
The incident occurred in the early hours of August 12 within Nischintakoili police limits. The woman and her male friend were travelling home to Kendrapada in a car when the driver felt drowsy and pulled over near a petrol pump to rest. Six men allegedly smashed the vehicle’s windows, abducted the couple, and took them to an isolated field at Aenda. They threw the man out of their vehicle and gang-raped the woman inside it before fleeing. Five of the accused were arrested the following day, August 13, after Kataka Rural Police formed multiple special teams and deployed scientific and technical support.
Cuttack Rural SP Vineet Agrawal previously confirmed that six men were involved in the incident. He noted that a case had been registered under relevant laws—including Section 70 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita—and that the survivor’s vehicle was seized for forensic analysis.
In a separate case, police arrested a 26-year-old man identified as Naresh Swain, a resident of Machhagan in Jagatsinghpur district, for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl in a hotel in Cuttack’s CDA locality. The incident took place on Friday. The minor, who hails from Baleshwar district, had arrived at Cuttack’s Netaji Bus Terminal for some work when she met Swain. He assured her he would help her reach her destination as she was unfamiliar with the city, but instead took her to the hotel and sexually assaulted her before fleeing and leaving her alone.
The girl contacted her parents; her father travelled to Katak and filed a complaint with Markat Nagar police on Saturday. Acting on the FIR, which invoked sections related to harassment and rape, investigators used CCTV footage to identify and arrest Swain. A senior police officer said the victim’s statement would be recorded on Monday.
