Bhubaneswar, Oct 2 (IANS): Odisha Commissionerate Police on Wednesday arrested three persons in connection with a case related to the alleged gangrape of a woman by looters in an apartment in the Maitri Vihar area of Bhubaneswar on the intervening night of September 29 and 30.
The accused persons will be produced before the court on Thursday.
Bikash Naik (26) of Salia Sahi area and Jaga Singh alias Katia (25) of Rebati Nagar under Dhauli police limits are the prime accused in the case.
The third accused identified as Tukuna Nayak (27) is residing at the same apartment where the victim lady has also been staying in the Maitri Vihar area of the city.
The prime accused Bikash and Jaga used to stay in the same slum area a few years ago.
The crime was committed on the intervening night of September 29 and 30. The woman victim is staying on the first floor of the multi-storied building which has been allotted for displaced slum dwellers in the Maitri Vihar area.
“As many as three persons were involved in the crime, two committed the assault while one stood as the guard. The accused had stolen a mobile phone from the victim lady’s house a day before the incident. Subsequently, the accused persons hatched the plan to commit a crime as they found that the lady had been staying alone in the house and the balcony gate also remained open always. They committed the sexual assault and robbery on the second day,” said Police Commissioner S. Dev Datta Singh on Wednesday.
Singh also said that two of the accused are habitual offenders and involved in a number of crimes. As many as seven cases are pending against Bikash at Chandrasekharpur police station while accused Jaga is involved in six criminal cases registered at Chandrasekharpur and Bharatpur police stations of the city.
Notably, the miscreants sexually abused the woman victim by keeping her two-year-old daughter and the victim hostage at knifepoint in Bhubaneswar on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
Based on the complaint of the victim, police registered a case (439/24) on September 30 and managed to arrest the accused persons within 48 hours of the incident.