Seven persons were arrested on Monday for allegedly gang-raping a woman and looting valuables at Gotidhara under the Brahmani Tarang police station here.
All those who have been arrested are habitual offenders and involved in a series of loot cases in the past. However, the kingpin of the crime is still absconding, said Rourkela SP K Siva Subramani.
According to SP, on the night at about 11 pm of February 23, some miscreants armed with weapons barged into a stone crusher unit with an intention to loot valuable equipment. The caretaker of the crusher unit was asleep in the ground floor of a building while his wife was in the first floor.
Finding the woman alone, the robbers threatened to kill her and then took turns to rape her. When her husband rushed upstairs after hearing her screams, the miscreants thrashed him and also threatened him of dire consequences if he raised an alarm, the SP said.
The robbers then fled with valuables worth lakhs of rupees from the crusher unit. The police took up an investigation into the case based on a complaint registered by the victims. After arresting the seven accused, police were able to seize the looted items with the vehicles and other materials used in loot from their possession.
While another accused was still absconding, efforts were on by police to trace and nab him, police sources said. Apprehending problems in further investigation, police did not disclose the names of the arrested accused.