Minor girl raped for rejecting advances by youth

Balasore: A minor girl was allegedly raped by a youth after she rejected his love advances in Soro of Balasore district. The incident came to the fore after the parents of the survivor filed a complaint at Soro police station on Saturday.

According to reports, the youth identified as Anup Behera of Simulia area in the district had proposed the minor girl which the latter had rejected.

Perturbed over the rejection, the youth on April 27 allegedly abducted the girl and raped her. Later, he fled the spot after committing the crime.

Meanwhile, police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused.

"We have registered a case basing on the complaint filed by the girl's mother. The accused is absconding and efforts are on to nab him," said Inspector-In-Charge of Soro police station, Dilip Das.

Notably, two separate incidents of gang rape and molestation of minor girls were reported from Jagatsinghpur and Balasore districts, respectively on Saturday.

While a Class 9 girl student was allegedly gang-raped by three youths in Krisnanandapur police outpost under Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur, another minor girl was allegedly molested by a door-to-door street vendor at Baunsabania area in Nilagiri of Balasore district.

Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda on the other hand expressed concern over rising incidents of crime against women in Odisha.

"Less than 2 decades ago, 1 such atrocity fuelled public anger & reshaped Odisha politics. After a dozen yrs of improvement, the past few yrs have again seen a sharp increase in such crimes (now literally 1 a day!). While those elsewhere see nat'l outrage, Odisha's don't seem to..," tweeted Panda.