A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by five people, including one of her close relatives, on the day of Rakhsha Bandhan, at a village in Odisha's Kendrapara district, police said on Tuesday.

The 10th standard student alleged that on August 9, a male relative visited her home and asked her to accompany him to a temple in a nearby village.

Instead, he took her to a deserted location, where he and four others allegedly raped her.

She alleged that the accused threatened her with dire consequences if she revealed the incident.

"The investigation is going on, post-mortem report, scientific team reports are awaited before reaching a conclusion on the cause of her death," the inspector-general of police said.

On Monday, in Odisha’s Bargarh district, a 13-year-old girl died after setting herself on fire.

Kendrapara and Bargarh come against the backdrop of sudden uptick of crimes against women in Odisha in the last two months.

On August 6, a female college student in Kendrapara died after allegedly immolating herself when her ex-boyfriend threatened to post intimate photographs online. Her father claimed police had refused to lodge a complaint months earlier.

On July 22 in Jagatsinghpur, an 18-year-old was kidnapped while returning from a birthday party with her mother and a friend. One of the accused dragged her to farmland and raped her.

That same night in Malkangiri, a minor girl went missing after attending a birthday party and was found later near a highway with a truck driver. Her mother filed a rape complaint, and the case was registered under the IPC and POCSO Act.

Also, in Puri, six drunk men allegedly harassed three sisters returning from a visit to the Jagannath temple, making obscene comments, pulling one woman's dupatta, and attempting to snatch their belongings.

Two of the men were caught by relatives and handed to police, while others fled.

On July 12, a 20 year old college student in Balasore set herself on fire after no action was allegedly taken over her complaint of sexual harassment against a professor. She died two days later.

On July 3 in Jajpur district, three men, including a hockey coach and two former coaches, were arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old trainee. "One of them has raped the girl, and the two others assisted him in the crime," said Jajpur police superintendent Yashpratap Shrimal.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik posted on X that the series of incidents marked a "disturbing wave of crimes against women" under the BJP-led government.

"Both in cities and villages, the streets have become increasingly unsafe for women-in broad daylight and night," he wrote on July 22, blaming political interference for eroding police accountability.

"These four deaths are not stray cases, th ere are many such girls who are dying in the most tragic way possible after being subjected to crime every day. Their desperation is not just a personal tragedy. Each tragedy reflects the failure to hear their screams. with each passing away of innocent lives lies the pain of a daughter of Odisha, which became so unbearable that she saw no other way out than to end her life," he wrote.

Odisha Police has said it is committed to the Constitution.

"People have the right to criticise the police and its actions. But we are working according to the rule of law as mandated by the Constitution. We are committed to providing seva (service) and surakshya (safety) to the people," additional director-general of police (law and order) Sanjay Kumar said on August 9 in Bhubaneswar.