A minor girl, a school student, was allegedly forcibly taken away and raped in Puri district on Friday sending the district administration into a tizzy as the State-wide outcry over the burning and death of schoolteacher Itishree Prdhan is yet to die down.
Ironically, the incident took place near the native village of Itishree Pradhan, who was set afire at her school hostel at Tikri in Rayagada district late last month for refusing to withdraw her molestation case against a Sub-Inspector of Schools. She was set on fire in the school hostel and succumbed to her burn injuries on November 2 at a Visakhapatnam hospital.
Puri Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Rajendra Rout on Saturday said the 15-year-old schoolgirl was raped by a youth near Muninda in the Delang area when she was on her way to a coaching centre by a bicycle on Friday evening.
The Class X girl was gagged and abducted by the accused Akshay Parida (33) and taken to an isolated place where she was raped, the police said. The girl was admitted to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Delang after the incident and then shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital at Puri.
The police arrested the youth, who hails from nearby Gunduchipatna village. The youth was whisked away to the police station at Kanas to save him from the wrath of the angry villagers, Rout said. Cases under different Sections of IPC including rape and Section 4 of Protection of Children of Sexual Offence Act have been registered against him, the SDPO said. A large number of people staged a roadblock at Hatadelanga in protest against the rape and brought the movement of traffic to different places to a grinding halt for sometime.
The protesters demanded stringent punishment to the accused and adequate compensation to the victim. The roadblock was lifted after the Puri Sub-Collector and police officials reached the spot.