While the BJP Government in the State continues to face flak from the opposition parties for failing to arrest the rising crimes against women and minors, a 19-year-old college student was allegedly gang-raped near a beach in a tourist destination in Odisha’s Puri district after the miscreants tied the hands of her male companion to stave off possible resistance from him.
The incident occurred at Baliharichandi beach under the Brahmagiri police station of Puri district on Saturday. However, the rape survivor, deeply traumatised after undergoing the harrowing ordeal, volunteered to lodge a complaint on Monday.
Police swung into action to arrest three of the culprits who had recorded video and clicked pictures while the victim, accompanied by her male companion, was spending some leisure time at the pristine beach.
Three of the accused persons booked under section 70 of BNS (bang rape) have been arrested and search is on to nab others involved in the crime. While accused persons and the victim have been medically examined, forensic teams are on the job to gather legal evidence at the crime spot, said Puri Superintendent of Police, Prateek Singh.
The mobile phones used by the accused to record video and click pictures were seized and have been sent to the State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Bhubaneswar for scientific examination and retrieval of the data.
The gang-rape of the female student in Puri beach on Saturday comes on the heels of a similar crime that was perpetrated at Gopalpur beach in Ganjam district in June last when a 20-year-old female student was gang-raped by 10 persons in front of her male companion.