Odisha: 35-year-old held in Jajpur for raping minor girl

JAIPUR: A 35-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl at Malaanandapur village under Sadar police station limits in the district.  The accused has been identified as Gatikrushna Dalai of the same village, police said. He was forwarded to local court and later remanded in judicial custody after his bail plea was rejected.

According to a complaint lodged by the father of the victim with the local police, a fellow villager, Dalei, had come to his house on Friday evening. He then took his 10-year-old daughter to a shop in the village on the pretext of giving her cold drinks. When his his daughter did not return home even after one hour, the family members started a frantic search. Even some villagers joined them and looked for the girl everywhere in the locality, but in vain.

“When our  frantic search did not yield any result, we filed a missing report at Sadar police station,” the complainant said. Later, some locals found the minor girl lying bleeding and in an unconscious state near a brick kiln in the village on Saturday. The accused had already fled from the spot. Locals informed the police about the incident.

“On being informed, our team reached the spot and admitted her to the local hospital. After raiding various hideouts, we managed to arrest Dalai on Saturday night,” a police official said. Police have conducted medical examination of the victim and the accused at the district headquarters hospital in Jajpur town. The accused has confessed to his crime, police said. Police said Dalai was arrested under Section 376 of IPC and POCSO Act after the victim’s father registered a complaint.