Baripada: Bangiriposhi police arrested a 50-year-old man on charge of committing sexual assault on a differently-abled 16-year-old girl.

The accused has been identified as Surendra Nayak, a resident of Pathuri gram panchayat of Bangriposhi block. The police also took Nayak's accomplices - Changa Nayak, 55, and Tuna Palei, 50 - into custody. They are being interrogated and their roles examined, said the police.

The police said the girl was deaf and dumb. The accused trio on Monday night went to the girl's house and consumed country liquor with her father. Under the influence of alcohol, her father slept and other two quit. Then the accused, Surendra, took out the girl, who was sleeping in another room, to a nearby field and raped her.

The mentally retarded girl could not raise alarm, and the accused fled the scene early morning. A woman in the neighbourhood spotted her in the early morning hours lying in the field. She narrated her ordeals after a lot of persuasions.

Tension erupted at the village after the news spread there. The girl's father lodged a police complaint. Senior police officials, including SP Anirudhha Singh, rushed to the village. After arresting Surendra, the cops sent both the girl and him for medical examinations.

Baripada sub-divisional police officer Abhimanyu Nayak said: "A case under Section 376 of the IPC has been registered. The role of other two accused persons in custody is verified. If found so, the case would be modified under the section of gang-rape," he said.

"The girl is mentally challenged, and the accused committed the offence taking advantage of her impairment and influencing her father through liquor," said Bangiriposhi police station inspector-in-charge Minati Biswal.