Tension over minor girl rape in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, auto driver arrested

BARIPADA: Tension ran high at Thakurmunda in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Thursday as hundreds of locals damaged a police vehicle and blocked State Highway 53 demanding immediate arrest of the youth, who alleged raped a minor girl.

While prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC has been imposed in front of the police station and its nearby localities, police used tear gas shells to disperse the agitating locals.

The minor tribal girl was allegedly raped by an auto-rickshaw driver while she was returning home at about 9 pm on Wednesday after visiting a religious event at Thakurmunda, around 15 km from her village.

Claiming that the minor girl was gang-raped by the auto driver and his associates, irate locals took to the streets, burnt tyres and blocked Keonjhar-Thakurmunda State Highway demanding arrest of the accused.

Though police assured that action was being taken as per the complaint lodged by the victim’s father, the locals did not budge. They observed hartal in the township area. All business establishment and government offices were closed.

Sub-Collector Sarat Chandra Purohit, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) KC Pattnayak and Tehsildar Dinamani Nayak rushed there along with one platoon of armed police force and brought the situation under control.

Officer-in-Charge of Thakurmunda police station Dhiraj Kumar Das said auto driver Babula Sethi has been arrested. He is being interrogated and will be produced in the court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate at Karanjia.

Refuting the allegations that the girl was gang-raped, Mayurbhanj SP Awinash Kumar said the accused has been nabbed basing on the compliant lodged by the victim’s father.

“It is not a case of gang-rape as being highlighted by a section of people. We have initiated prompt action and arrested the accused in less than 12 hours of the FIR was registered,” he added.

After the victim’s parents got off the auto rickshaw, the driver drove away the minor on the pretext of parking his vehicle at a nearby place and allegedly raped her. She was later found lying near a bushy area and rushed to Karanjia hospital.