As the nation reels under the shock of the Hyderabad veterinary doctor’s rape and murder, another equally shocking news has come from Odisha, where a minor girl, who worked in a melody party, was on Monday evening allegedly gang-raped by two men. The men included a dismissed police constable and the horrific crime took place in a police quarter of Puri district in Odisha.
The girl was on her way from Bhubaneswar to her native village and had got down at Nimapara bus stand to have snacks. She missed the bus in the process and was offered help by the dismissed police constable, identified as Jitendra Sethi (along with 3 others), who allegedly told her that he can drop her to her village.
“Sethi showed his police ID card to gain the victim’s trust. When the girl saw three others in the car, she was scared for her safety, but Sethi promised her to drop her home. However, instead of taking her to her village, the four took her to the police quarter of Sethi where he and one of his aides raped her,” said Puri SP Umashankar Dash.
All the accused including the dismissed constable have been arrested and are being interrogated.
The dismissed police constable’s wife, also a constable, had left for duty, when the girl was raped in that quarter. The son was asleep in another room. Two of the accused locked up the son’s room and kept guard outside the next room where Sethi and another accused sexually assaulted the girl. They then locked up the girl in the room and left. It was only when the neighbours heard the girl’s cries that they broke into the house and freed her.
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Police said the victim, during the sexual assault, managed to record the faces of her assailants in her phone camera. She also caught hold of the identity card of Jitendra Sethi which helped reveal his identity.
A case under section 376(g) of IPC and several sections of Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act have been lodged against the accused at Kumbharpada police station of Puri.
Sethi had been dismissed from the services after his criminal acts came to the limelight. He has been arrested earlier for trying to sexually assault his mother-in-law and to burn his second wife by setting her on fire.
Earlier yesterday, both the houses of the parliament had debated the issue of women safety and demanded stringent laws.