Bhubaneswar, Feb. 6: A 20-year-old girl living in a village on the city outskirts today accused a 24-year-old youth of raping her on January 23.
Her family members lodged the complaint with Chandaka police allegedly after negotiations between the families of the victim and the accused had failed.
Initially, the two sides had agreed to get the two married in the presence of the villagers. But soon after, the accused went absconding.
The police, which is probing the case, said that the 20-year-old girl, a native of Dhiringiput and a Plus Three student in a city college, was allegedly raped by Dilu Behera, 24, of neighbouring Kateni village.
Dilu, a truck driver, had allegedly raped her inside the cabin of his truck, said a police official. The villages of both the accused and the victim are located within a distance of two kilometres.
“We have registered a case under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and have started investigation into the case. The girl has been medically examined,” said zonal assistant commissioner of police Fagua Singh.
On the day of the incident, the victim had gone to his uncle’s house at Palaspur, about 10 kilometres away from her residence.
“While I was waiting for a bus in the evening, Behera asked me to take a lift in his truck. I went with him, but instead of taking me to my village, he took the vehicle to an isolated place near Deras dam. There, he raped me inside the truck cabin,” said wrote the victim in her FIR.
Later, Behera had abandoned the victim on road. “A villager rescued my daughter, who was left on road with her hands and legs tied. Behera had also threatened my daughter of dire consequences if she told anything to her parents,” said the victim’s mother.
The villagers, however, alleged that the police had not registered a case though the family members of the girl had informed the police on February 2. “Though we had visited the police station on February 2, they refused to register our complaint. But later, when other villagers joined us and threatened to launch an agitation, the police registered the case,” said the mother of the victim.
