Bhawanipatna (Odisha), Sep 23 (PTI) A college student was allegedly gangraped inside a forest in Odisha's Kalahandi district and a probe has been launched to apprehend the culprits, police said on Monday.
The incident took place on the afternoon of September 14 near Junagarh, 25 km from here and the police swung into action after the woman lodged an FIR late on Sunday night, Kalahandi superintendent of police B Gangadhar said.
The rape survivor had apparently kept silent on the incident out of fear and shame and approached the police after a video of the crime recorded by her tormentors went viral in social media, police said.
In her complaint, the woman said she had come to Bhawanipatna on some work on September 14 and was waiting at the bus stand here to return to Junagarh when a man known to her offered a lift in his car.
As they were around four km from Junagarh on NH 26 which has forests on both sides of it, a group of five to six men with their faces covered stopped the car and pulled her out while brandishing a knife, police said quoting her complaint.
The attackers then dragged her into the forest and raped her and disappeared into it, the police said quoting the FIR.
They later uploaded a video of the dastardly act in the social media and it went viral. It was then she decided to lodge her complaint at Junagarh police station on Sunday night.
The woman has been examined and her statement recorded, while the man who had given her the lift in his car was detained and interrogated, the SP said.
The police have examined the spot of the crime, he said.
The cyber wing of the police has also launched an operation to track the accused and they are expected to be caught soon, the SP added.
A team of the State Commission for Women is likely to visit the spot on Tuesday, sources in it said.
