Women harassment: Police arrests 3 accused

Bhubaneswar: Police on Sunday arrested three persons in connection with harassing three girls at Nandankanan road here on Friday, said Police Commissioner YB Khurania.

Informing this to the media, Khurania said, the arrested persons have been identified as Madhab Kumar Rout (22), Mrutyunjay Patra (22) and Biswaranjan Pradhan (21).

“While Madhab and Mrutyunjay are resident of Raghunathpur area under Nandankanan police limits, Biswaranjan is a native of Maruti Residency under Nandankanan police limits,” Khurania said, adding that the three arrested youths would be forwarded to court later in the day.

“Investigation into the matter is on and all the accused involved in the incident will be arrested soon,” Khurania stated.

Refuting the allegation that police reached the spot late, Khurania said, "The control room got information about the incident at 3.24 pm and police reached the spot at 3.40 pm. Within 36 hours three accused have been arrested."

"Commissionerate Police is giving more emphasis to the safety and security of senior citizens and women. Security has been tightened at tourist places like Nandankanan and Dhauli," Khurania stated.

Notably, three girls along with one of their male friends were harassed by a group of youths on Friday on the busy Nandankanan road.

The incident happened when three girls along with one of their male friends were chit-chatting near Magnet square in Patia area. In the meantime, three youths came in two Bajaj Pulsar bikes (OD-19-C-8599 and OD-05-G-1711) and passed obscene comments to the girls. Even if the girls protested, the miscreants continued to pass lewd comments and drove away.

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Making up their minds to teach the boys a lesson, all four followed the hooligans on the Patia-Nandankanan road on two bikes. After following them for about a kilometre, the girls didn’t find them as the bikers disappeared from the scene all of a sudden, forcing the girls to stop midway.

In the meantime some youths believed to be the friends of the miscreants came running towards the girls and started abusing them with foul languages. When the girls protested, they started harassing them physically.