BERHAMPUR: Gajapati police on Tuesday produced a 17-year-old boy before the juvenile justice board on charges of sexually assaulting a minor Tibetan girl in Chandragiri area of the district.
The shocking incident took place at Jirang under Mohana police limits on Sunday. Known to the seven-year-old girl’s family, the accused was nabbed on Monday.
Police said the accused teenager lives in close proximity to the survivor’s house and belongs to another community. He allegedly raped the minor at her home when her parents had gone to attend a social function. The girl’s family had unofficially adopted the accused and even extended financial support to him including for his education.
Gajapati SP Jatindra Panda said, “The girl’s mother lodged a complaint with police basing on which we registered a case against the accused under various sections of the BNS and POCSO Act. Medical tests of both the accused and the survivor were conducted.”
District child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathi said the accused was sent to juvenile home in Berhampur after his statement was recorded. Similarly, statement of the survivor was also recorded and she was handed over to her parents.
Sources said the girl’s family is one of the thousands that fled Tibet along with their spiritual leader in the 1960s and settled in Gajapati district. Around 2,500 Tibetans have been staying at five camps in Chandragiri, Jirang, Takillipadar, Labarsingh and Mahendragarh since 1964.
Meanwhile, condemning the incident, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress committee Bhakta Charan Das said the sexual assault on the Tibetan minor exposes a disturbing collapse of law and order in the state under the BJP government. “Such disgraceful crimes tarnish the state’s global image and wound our collective conscience. The safety and dignity of every woman must be an uncompromising priority,” he said in a post on X.