ROURKELA: Even as the gangrape of the 17 year-old girl in Rourkela has sent shockwaves across the state, investigation has revealed that the victim may have been made to drink alcohol and get intoxicated before she stepped out of the bar and restaurant on Sunday night. In the next three-and-half hours, she was sexually assaulted by five persons in two separate episodes.
Even as RN Pali police investigates the disturbing crime, three suspects are being interrogated, while multiple police teams are out looking for the other two absconding culprits.
Piecing together the sequence of events, sources informed, the victim along with her two male and as many female friends had dined at Hooddang bar & restaurant located along Panposh Road under RN Pali police limits on Sunday night. Police suspect she might have had alcoholic drinks there.
After her friends left, the girl stepped out of the restaurant alone around 11 pm and was waiting on the road when two miscreants offered to drop her home in a two-wheeler. They took the victim to a place located between a library and a defunct millet cafe - the first crime spot along the busy ring road near the administrative building of the RSP under the Plant Site police limits. The two were joined by another person and committed gangrape on her, police sources said.
The victim managed walk up to the ring road and exactly at that time, two others, believed to be acquaintances, approached her in a two-wheeler. They took her to Maguni Basti slum near Chaudhury fuel filling station where one of them raped her and the other molested her, police said. The two then dropped her near the bar and restaurant and escaped around 2.30 am.
The victim’s father told TNIE that after his daughter did not return home, he with his son contacted her friends and finally found her near the restaurant. Police are investigating if the perpetrators were in the same restaurant and had targeted her.
A senior cop associated with the investigation said initial reports that the girl was first gangraped at the basement of the bar was untrue. “The miscreants at the first crime spot were not known to the victims, while those at the second had acquaintance with her,” said the officer.
He further said it appeared the victim was intoxicated with alcohol by her friends, adding investigation is also underway to ascertain they have links with the culprits. The friends were quizzed in connection with the matter. The victim, student of a technical institute, hails from a poor background while her father works at a shop.
DIG Brijesh Kumar Rai who is officiating as Rourkela SP said efforts are underway to nab the culprits. In the process of investigation, the staff of the bar along with friends of the victims have been examined.
Meanwhile, excise superintendent Sheikh Asaf Ali confirmed that the bar and restaurant has a valid licence. A case under sections 70(2), 77, 137(2) and 351 (3) of BNS and section 6 of POCSO Act has been registered with RN Pali police station.