BARIPADA: Rairangpur Town police on Friday arrested two women in connection with the rape of a 23-year-old lecturer who later committed suicide.
The duo was identified as Minmayee Sahoo (28) of Umadeipur in Jharpokharia and her elder sister Sailabala Sahoo (34) of Murabali village under Ghasipura in Keonjhar district. Both the women are sisters of Soumya Ranjan Sahu, the prime accused of the case.
Rairangpur IIC Ranjan Kumar Sethi said a police team arrested the two sisters from Jajpur Road Railway Station when they were trying to flee the State.
The duo had threatened and forced the victim, a native of Pandhada under Jharpokharia, not to disclose her rape by their brother to anyone.
The victim’s father had named the duo in his FIR. They were arrested under Sections 306, 506 and 34 of the IPC. Minmayee and Sailabala were produced in Rairangpur SDJM Court and remanded to judicial custody after their bail was rejected.
With the arrest of the sisters, the total number of persons apprehended by the police in the case has increased to five.
Earlier, police had arrested Soumya and his two accomplices Debabrata Mandal and Sujit Mandal from Dhanmandal in Cuttack. Debabrata and Sujit had also threatened the victim to remain silent.
The victim, who served as a lecturer in a college in Rairangpur, had gone to the house of her brother and sister-in-law to celebrate Kali Puja on October 26 where she was raped by Soumya.
Though she lodged an FIR with Jharpokharia police on October 30, no action was taken against the accused.
On November 30, the lecturer committed suicide by hanging in her room in the women’s hostel of the college.
Following the incident, Mayurbhanj SP Parmar Smit Parshottamdas suspended ASI Prasanta Swain and transferred Jharpokharia IIC Sarat Mahali for delaying investigation of the case.