Baripada, March 21: Mayurbhanj police have arrested a 42-year-old cook of a residential school on charge of raping a Class IX student. The accused, Bidyadhar Nayak, was sent to judicial custody.

Inspector in charge of Joshipur police station Niranjan Dhir said: 'The accused was nabbed from a forest in Keonjhar. We arrested him by tracking his mobile phone on Wednesday.'

Though the incident took place a few days ago, the victim's father lodged the complaint on Wednesday.

Earlier, Kastruba Gandhi Girls' School headmistress Amravati Sangi had allegedly tried to hush up the matter. She has now been placed under suspension, and a case has been registered against her under Section 202 of the Indian Penal Code (omission of information).

Nayak was caught from a forest in Keonjhar near Burubeda village bordering Mayurbhanj district. He had initially fled to Bhubaneswar and later escaped to Keonjhar.

Nayak raped the victim who was a boarder at the school in Durdura.

Robbers in net

Police have busted a gang that had looted several liquor shops across Dhenkanal district.

The police arrested two of the nine-member gang on Thursday night and seized sharp weapons, two motorcycles and Rs 18,500 in cash.

The robbers' gang looted a shop at Ambapalasuni in the Parjanag police station limits on Thursday night.

However, shop manager Susil Kumar had managed to inform the local police, who rushed to the spot and arrested two of the gang members - Brusaketu Naik, 22, and Ranghu Naik, 26 - from the shop. Others members of the gang managed to flee.

The police, who are now looking for the other gang members, said all the robbers were from Meramundali of the district.

'The arrested gang members have admitted to have carried out the loots. We are looking for the other members of the gang and hope to nab them shortly,' said Dhenkanal superintendent of police Nikhil Kanodia.

Around 15 to 20 licensed liquor shops operating in the district had become a soft target of the robbers' gang. In the past few months, the gang has carried out five incidents of robbery at these liquor shops.

Following these incidents, all the police stations were alerted last week to keep a watch on the liquor shops.

The shop owners have also been advised not to keep any cash in the shop at night and inform the police immediately when they noticed something suspicious.

Additional reporting by BK Rout