The police arrested three persons on Sunday night on the charge of raping a 24-year-old married woman near a river embankment at Khirovillage under the Panikoili police station.
According to PS IIC Arpita Khatua, the victim filed an FIR that three persons gang-raped her on the pretext of providing a lift to her to village Musatiri in Keonjhar district on Sunday evening. While she was waiting for boarding a bus to her village at Panikoili Chhak, the accused assured her to help her reach her village.
After the victim sat on one of the motorbikes of the accused persons, all of them raped her on the way at Khiro village after dragging her into an isolated place at the river embankment. On hearing her cry, some villagers rushed to her rescue.
Acting on the FIR, the police went to the village for investigation. “We arrested Manas Majhi (19) of Chamana village, Nizamuddin Khan (22) of Sankarpur and Chakradhar Das (22) of Mangalapur,” said the IIC, adding that the victim and all the accused were medically examined by doctors of the Government hospital in Jajpur Town. The accused were produced in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Jajpur Road on Monday. The court rejected their bail pleas and remanded them to custody.