According to authorities on Friday, two brothers, ages 60 and 58, were arrested in the Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha on suspicion of regularly raping a 15-year-old girl who came to the ashram where they worked.
According to the police, the two males and an accomplice recently threatened to bury the girl alive in order to coerce her into getting an abortion. After escaping, the girl informed her family about the rape, and they reported it to the police.
The two brothers, who were later taken into custody, were identified by police as Bhagyadhar Das (60) and Panchanan Das (58), who were employed at an ashram in the Kujang area of the district as a cook and a pujari, respectively. According to the police, the rape victim encountered the two when she was visiting the ashram, and they sexually assaulted her multiple times.
However, the girl was under pressure to abort after her brothers learned she was pregnant. They convinced her to come to a remote location where they had excavated a large pit when she refused. According to Chinmay Raut, a sub divisional police officer in Tirtol, the accused made an offer to finance and assist with an abortion. They threatened to bury her alive if she refused to have an abortion, so they enticed her to a place where they had dug a trench. Somehow, the survivor got away and told her father about the experience, Raut said.
Following a medical assessment at the district headquarters hospital, Tirtol SDPO Chinmay Raut stated, “A case was registered at Kujang police station on basis of a complaint by her father.”
The girl’s father also claimed in the FIR that he had first brought the issue to the attention of a local panchayat official, who threatened him with money to put an end to the situation and even threatened to call the police if he did. Four men were detained by the police in the Balasore district for allegedly attempting to kill a 20-year-old woman after failing to rape her while she was at a pond taking a bath.
On Thursday, the four allegedly attacked the woman after following her to the village pond. In addition to beating the woman’s head against a stone for protesting, the accused tried to rape her. However, she was able to get away and reported the incident to her family.