BHUBANESWAR: A day after the shocking gang-rape of a Class IX student by four uniformed men in Koraput district, irate villagers continued their blockade of the Koraput-Vishakhapatnam NH-26, demanding arrest of the rapists.
Hundreds of vehicles have been stranded on the highway for the last 23 hours as local people picketed the highway near Kunduli Square.
On Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl of Musaguda village under Pottangi police limits was allegedly gang-raped by four uniformed personnel in the Lanjiguda forest while she was on her way to school from Kunduli.
The victim, a student of a Government Welfare School at Sorisapadar, had gone to Kunduli market to obtain a document and a few passport size photographs.
The girl somehow managed to reach home after the incident and revealed her ordeal to her mother. She was rushed to a hospital in Kunduli and later to the Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital as her condition had deteriorated.
Hospital sources on Wednesday said the condition of the girl is stable now.
The Odisha police on Wednesday set up a special team of the crime branch to arrest the culprits.
Terming it as a red flag case, director-general of police RP Sharma said efforts are on to identify the miscreants and stringent action will be initiated against them, irrespective of who they are.
The victim’s family alleged that it was four armed jawans who committed the crime. Sharma neither confirmed the allegation.
Police have registered a case under sections 376 (D) and 377 of IPC and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
A team of crime branch policemen and forensics experts will visit the spot to investigate the matter and meet the victim and her family.
Meanwhile, Congress chief whip and Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati has threatened to call for a Koraput bandh if the police failed to nab the culprits within the next two days.