ROURKELA: In a disturbing incident, two minor girls were allegedly gangraped by unidentified miscreants in a forested patch behind the Birsa Munda multi-purpose stadium under Plant Site police limits in Rourkela on Saturday evening.
The victims had come to buy shoes when the incident took place between 5 pm and 8.30 pm. The victims managed to escape and save their lives. Police reportedly detained three persons in connection with the incident on Sunday.
According to the complaint, the victims, aged between 14 and 15 years, had come to Rourkela market to buy sandals. They got down near Bisra Square when three miscreants approached and offered to drop them back at their home on the pretext that the area was not safe for them.
The complaint with Plant Site police station revealed that one of the victims refused the help saying her elder sister was arriving to pick them up. That’s when the criminals forcibly bundled the girls into an autorickshaw and took them to a secluded place behind the stadium. The three miscreants gangraped one of the victims by gagging her. The other girl too was sexually assaulted by two of them at the spot.
The perpetrators called four other associates to the spot. However, the victims, somehow, managed to escape and called their relative who informed activist Rita Singh. The victims stayed the night with Rita and on Sunday, they went to Plant Site police station where the FIR was lodged.
A case for kidnapping, gangrape of minors, criminal intimidation was registered under provisions of BNS 137(2), 70(2), 351(4) as well as section 6 of POCSO.
As per preliminary investigation three miscreants physically committed the crime and further investigation was underway to ascertain involvement of others, Zone-III deputy SP Nirmal Mohapatra said. The three miscreants involved in the heinous crime have been detained and their criminal antecedents are getting verified, he added.