Odisha police team leaves for UP to track girl’s rapists

Bhubaneswar: Odisha police have sent a team to Uttar Pradesh to nab the accused after a minor tribal girl from Dhenkanal district recently alleged that she was raped by several people during the last two years in the Jhansi area of UP. The plight of the girl started after an Odia man sold her to a man in Jhansi two years ago.The girl, now 17 years old, had approached the Odia man to provide her some work due to the poor financial condition of her family with her parents being daily-wage labourers. “The man promised to give her a job in Bhubaneswar but later sold her to one Asish Yadav from Jhansi, thus trafficking her. The girl was confined to a room for many days before being sold to another man,” said Jitendra Mallick, a police officer associated with the investigation of the case.According to the girl, Asish and his father raped her repeatedly for three months. “I got pregnant due to sexual assault. Asish’s mother arranged an abortion for her pregnancy. They were not allowing me to go outside on my own. I tried to escape from them, but it was not possible,” she added.She said Asish later sold her to one Chandrapal Kushwah of a nearby locality for Rs 50,000. “I faced more torture at the new place. Chandrapal, his elder brother, his uncles and some others raped me for around two years. They even threatened to make my condition worse if I tried to escape. I was very scared of them,” she added.Later, the girl escaped with the help of a local lawyer, who took her to Jhansi district headquarters. “I went to a police station to lodge a complaint against the accused. Police bought me a train ticket and sent me to my native place after speaking to my mother,” she added.Dhenkanal police said the girl reached her native place on May 22 and lodged a complaint with the local police on May 23. “After the girl reached home, she mustered courage and came to our police station seeking help. We immediately lodged the complaint and recorded her statement,” said Mallick.