Paradip, Aug. 14: Police today arrested two persons accused of torturing a mentally ill woman in a temple, 72 hours after the incident took place here.

On the night of August 11, a mob, mostly youths from the locality, allegedly stripped and assaulted the woman. They tied her hands and punched and kicked her near Badamangala in Kendrapara town.

The woman had allegedly entered the sanctum sanctorum of a local temple.

Local residents believed that she had desecrated and dishonoured the deity as she allegedly tapped and patted it, which provoked them to assault her.

The assault lasted for nearly 15 minutes, said an eyewitness.

"We have apprehended two of the culprits after we established the identity of the offenders based on photographic evidence. The manner in which the woman was tortured was insensitive, shocking and barbaric," said Kendrapara police station inspector in-charge Sanjeev Mohanty.

"We rescued the woman from the mob. After establishing her identity, we sent her back to her home. The troublemakers fled when we arrived on the spot," he said.

The officer said more than a dozen people, mostly young ment who stayed in the locality, had perpetrated the offence.

The cops have already identified them and a special squad has been constituted to nab the absconders, Mohanty said.

Those arrested have been booked under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman), Section 342 (wrongful confinement), Section 34 (a criminal act is done by several persons) of the Indian Penal Code and were remanded in jail custody after a local court denied them bail, he added.

The physical abuse of an elderly and mentally ill woman has evoked sharp reactions in the city.

According to eyewitness accounts, the victim cried for help as the mob tied her up and assaulted her.

However, nobody came to her rescue though the temple was located along the busy main road leading to Lord Baldevjew Temple.