A man was arrested on Wednesday on the charge of sexually abusing a minor girl and engaging her in begging after kidnapping her about 20 days ago from Kaudia village in Ganjam district.
Narayan Dash (30) of Bariguda village, who had allegedly kidnapped the eight-year-old Class-II girl from her village on November 25, was arrested from Ankushapur near here.
He kidnapped the girl while she was witnessing a festival on the occasion of Kartika Purnima. The girl was rescued by the Government Railway Police from the local railway station on December 4 in a distressed condition and admitted at the MKCG Medical College Hospital here.
The accused allegedly took her to Burupada and sexually exploited her at a rest-shed. Next day, he engaged her for begging at different places. He removed the ear tops of the girl and sold them at Rs 2,000 to a jewellery shop at Kabisuryanagar and purchased a mobile phone from there.
The girl was rescued by the GRP while she was crying at the railway station, DIG (Southern Range) Amitabh Thakur said.
“We had formed two squads to nab the accused. As the severely traumatised girl was not able to tell anything, there was no clue. We then analysed similar incidents that had occurred in past and detected the accused,” Ganjam SP Narsingha Bhol said.
The accused, deserted by his wife, was living on begging, police said.
“During investigation, we came to know that it was the third such crime committed by the accused in last four years,” said the DIG. The accused had been released from Bhanjangara jail onOctober 16 in another case, the SP said.