Jajpur: Kuakhia police on Saturday arrested two youths for molesting a woman singer at Bhagirathapur village in the district.

The accused have been identified as Biranchi Narayan Sethy, 21, and Sushanta Kumar Rout, 31, both of them belong to Tikarapada village in Kuakhia police station jurisdiction of the district. The police arrested them after the woman filed a complaint against the duo with the local police on Friday.

The police said a programme was organised at the village on Thursday night. The woman, a member of the orchestra, had taken part in it.

Sethy and Rout allegedly intercepted the way of the singer near the village while she was returning home with her friend after the programme was over on Thursday night. There they molested her and assaulted her friend.

"I was returning home on a motorcycle, along with my friend, after the programme. The accused duo stopped our motorbike near Tikarapada village, dragged me from the bike and molested me there," said the woman, adding that the accused had come to the spot on a bike.

When her friend resisted, the accused assaulted him physically and snatched a gold ring and some cash from him, the complaint said.

"We have registered a case and started investigation into the incident. We had gone to the spot to gather evidence," said Kuakhia police station inspector-in-charge Ashis Kumar Sahu.

The police conducted raids at various places and managed to arrest the duo. The accused were produced in a local court on Saturday and later remanded in judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected, the police said.

Held for extortion

A lecturer of a private engineering college and a bank staff were arrested on Saturday for impersonating as Maoists and trying to extort money from a senior staff of the engineering college in Koraput district.

The arrested lecturer has been identified as Santosh Swain, 54, of Institute of Engineering and Management at Phampuni and the bank staff has been identified as Amir Kumar Behera posted at the Phampuni branch of the Utkal Gramya Bank in Jeypore Sadar police limits, said police.

According to police, Swain was upset over the management of the college for not increasing his salary. He had a tiff with one of the management official identified as Simanchal Nayak.

The arrested duo had called Nayak on December 16, 2017 and had demanded Rs 10 lakh by identifying themselves as Maoists.

"They had asked Nayak to hand over the money before December 25, 2017 and had subsequently called him two to three times," said Sethy. "By tracking the mobile number the duo was arrested and during interrogation it was found that they had no link with the Maoists," he said.