The Odisha president of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Udit Pradhan, was on Sunday arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old engineering student in a Bhubaneswar hotel, Odisha police said on Monday.

The incident, which allegedly took place on March 18, came to light only this week after the survivor filed a complaint at the Mancheswar Police Station. In her statement, the woman accused Pradhan of spiking her drink and sexually assaulting her.

According to the police and the complaint, the student had gone to Bhubaneswar’s Master Canteen Chowk on March 18 to meet two friends. While they were talking inside a car, another man joined the group, introducing himself as Udit Pradhan and telling her that he was the Odisha state president of NSUI.

The woman alleged that Pradhan later invited her for dinner. During the meeting, she consumed a cold drink which she claims was laced with an intoxicating substance.

She told the police that she lost consciousness and was raped in a hotel room.

She also claimed that Pradhan later threatened her with “dire consequences” if she spoke about the incident to anyone.

“I was silent due to the influence of Pradhan. However, as the women’s allegations are now being attended to, I dared to lodge a complaint against him,” the student said in her complaint.

“Based on the complaint submitted by the student, an FIR was registered at the Mancheswar Police Station and the accused was arrested on Sunday,” a senior police officer confirmed.

The officer added that Pradhan has been booked under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including charges of rape and criminal intimidation.

Although the alleged incident occurred in March, the survivor approached the police only this Sunday. The reasons for the delay are not clear.

Pradhan suspended

NSUI national president Varun Choudhary suspended its Odisha unit president with immediate effect and said the students’ wing of the Congress maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-based injustice.

Pradhan's supporters, however, staged a demonstration before the Mancheswar Police Station, protesting against the arrest.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das on Monday constituted a six-member fact-finding team, headed by its vice-president Sasmita Behera, to probe into the allegations against Pradhan and meet the student.

BJP and ABVP react

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) posted on X that Pradhan’s arrest shows what the “so-called Nari Satao Union of India stands for” and demanded that the Congress answer whether this was its model of women empowerment.

The ABVP also termed the incident “not just a political scandal” but “a horrifying crime.”

Amit Malviya, BJP’s national IT cell in-charge and co-incharge for West Bengal, also posted a reaction on X. He wrote that the incident was “shameful but not surprising” and pointed out that Pradhan’s arrest came close on the heels of another horrific case where student leaders from both the BJD and Congress were accused of pushing the Balasore sexual assault victim to suicide through a campaign of character assassination.

Malviya questioned “how long such parties would shield predators in their ranks and how many more young women must suffer before there is accountability”. He ended his post by stating that “silence is complicity.”

As of Monday evening, the Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi had not issued any public statement addressing the allegations against its student wing leader.

The arrest comes at a politically sensitive time for the party in Odisha, where the Congress has been vocal about the alleged rise in crimes against women under the BJP government.