Samurai Murmu being produced in court. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 28: A jawan of the Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) was today sent to jail on charges of raping a Grade-IV employee of the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy after a local court rejected his bail plea.

The jawan, identified as 28-year-old Samarai Murmu from Mayurbhanj district, was arrested by the Mahila police last night. Police said the jawan was with the seventh battalion of the OSAP.

The complainant, a 22-year-old girl from Mayurbhanj, was working as a Grade-IV employee at the police training academy in Patrapara on the city outskirts. Police said that the girl had said in her complaint that while she was returning home from the academy, the accused kidnapped her from near Ekamravilla in Nayapalli yesterday, and molested her in an abandoned house.

Later, the girl, with the help of local residents, came to Nayapalli police station and lodged a complaint. The Nayapalli police arrested the accused and handed him over to the Mahila police, as the matter came under the latter’s jurisdiction.

Police booked Murmu under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Police had conducted a medical examination of both the accused and the victim in Capital Hospital today following which the jawan was produced in court.

Sources said the girl’s brother, who was with the Orissa Police, was killed by Maoists last year following which the government offered her a job.

As she was just a matriculate, she was given a Grade-IV job in the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy in Bhubaneswar.

The victim and the accused knew each other and the latter used to help her out at times. Recently, the girl had shifted to Ekamravilla area at Nayapalli. The local residents said that on that day, when they heard the girl shouting for help, they chased the youth and handed him over to the police.

In another incident, the Mahila police arrested a man, identified as Ramakant Baral, 35, from Salia Sahi area last night for killing his wife a year ago. Baral, a resident of Saranakul area in Nayagarh district, was sent to jail after a local court had rejected his bail plea.

Police said Baral had been absconding since October last year after killing his wife, as she had failed to fulfil his dowry demand.

Police had been on the look out for him. “Acting on a tip-off, we arrested him from Salia Sahi, where he had been hiding,” said a police officer. He was booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder and dowry torture.