Balangir: Police have detained a constable for allegedly kidnapping a mentally challenged woman from the government-run short-stay home at Salepali in Town police limits here.

The constable has been identified as Indramani Jued, deployed at a police outpost in the town. The police registered a complaint against the cop after caretaker of the short-stay home had lodged a complaint of the incident at Town police station.

The police are yet to throw light on the motive behind the abduction and also the whereabouts of the kidnapped woman. Sources said the woman had been spotted wandering aimlessly in Balangir in September 2016. She was believed to have hailed from Chhattisagarh and found to be mentally deranged. The woman was picked up by some activists, and since then, she had been residing in the short-stay home, Swadhar Griha, which is run by the district administration at Salepali.

Eyewitnesses said Jued came to the short-stay home in the afternoon on a motorcycle and fled the spot after forcibly taking the woman with him. The whereabouts of the woman is not yet known. "He came on a bike to the short-stay home. Then the cop took along the woman with him. None at the home opposed but remained mute spectator to the entire event," said caretaker Narad Chhatar.

The police on Monday evening apprehended the accused cop and are interrogating him.

Town police station inspector-in-charge Gokulananda Sahu said that on the basis of the complaint, the police had registered a case against the cop and inquiring into it. "We have detained the accused cop and interrogation is going on. If the allegation against him found to be true, action will be taken against him," Sahu said.