CUTTACK: An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by an opera artist at Gopinathpur village under Nemalo police limits on Thursday night. The girl had gone to watch a play staged by Tapaswini opera party on the outskirts of the village at about 7 pm when the accused, Ramakanta Singh, lured her to a nearby bamboo forest on the pretext of teaching her dance and raped her.
Singh (19) is a resident of Simulia in Balasore. When the girl cried in pain and threatened to reveal the incident to her parents, Singh strangulated her and when she fell unconscious, he mistook her to be dead.
Before leaving the spot, he dumped the unconscious girl under a bamboo bush. Efforts of the girl’s family members to trace her on Thursday failed. On Friday wee hours, some villagers spotted the girl behind the bush.
The unconscious and profusely bleeding victim was rushed to Nischintakoili Community Health Centre (CHC) and later referred to SCB Medical College and Hospital where her condition is stated to be stable. Following the incident, tension ran high in the locality with villagers alleging involvement of opera party staff in the crime.
Senior police officials, including Cuttack SP (Rural) Radha Binod Panigrahi, rushed to the spot along with forensic team and started investigation. Police has detained entire opera party for questioning. “The rape accused was identified and arrested during the investigation and on the basis of the complaint registered by the girl’s father, a case has been registered under different sections of IPC and POCSO Act,” said Panigrahi.