Two held for raping girl in Odisha

Two persons have been arrested on charges of kidnapping and raping a 15-year- old girl in Kendrapara district, police said on Monday. The incident happened on January 12 when the girl, a resident of Araji village, was allegedly kidnapped by three men from the Pattamundai area of the district.

The accused had kidnapped the girl on the pretext of giving her a lift, raped her in turns in their vehicle and dumped her near the Araji village, a police officer said. During the investigation, it came to light that the accused persons had offered a spiked soft drink to the girl and she was apparently raped after she fell unconscious, the officer said.

While two persons have been apprehended from Telkoi in Keonjhar district on Sunday, another accused is absconding, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Kendrapara, Ranjan Kumar Dey, said, adding, efforts are on to nab him. The girl's family had lodged a kidnapping complaint with the police on January 13 but there was no mention of sexual assault in it, the SDPO said.

Sexual abuse was established after the victim underwent a medical examination, he said. The accused have been booked under various sections of the IPC section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, he added.