Bhubaneswar, May 13 (IANS) The Commissionerate Police on Wednesday arrested four persons, including the victim’s alleged boyfriend, on charges of gang rape and blackmail of a female student at an engineering college in Bhubaneswar.​

The accused persons were identified as Subhankar Padhy, 21, of Balasore district; Ranjan Behera, 24, and Ratiranjan Tarai, 23, of Jajpur district; and Sipun Behera, 23, of Khordha district.​

Both Shubhankar and the victim are students at a private engineering college. As per the victim’s complaint, the alleged sexual assault took place around 20 days ago when she had gone to Ranjan’s rented accommodation in the Kaimatia area under the Info Valley Police station area for dinner on the invitation of her boyfriend.​

At that time, three of Shubhankar’s friends were also present there. The victim alleged that after consuming a soft drink, she started feeling dizzy and later fell asleep.

She further claimed that the accused persons sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious. After regaining consciousness, she realised that she had been subjected to physical assault and sexual abuse.

The accused persons also allegedly recorded obscene videos of the survivor on their mobile phones. Ranjan Behera subsequently used the recordings to threaten and coerce her into repeated sexual assault, police said. The incident is reported to have occurred in an apartment near the Info Valley police station in April.​

Based on the complaint filed by the victim on Tuesday, a case (162/26) has been registered under Sections 64(2)(m), 70(1), and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Section 66E of the Information Technology Act.

All four accused have been taken into custody, and the matter is under investigation. The Accused persons were produced before the court on Wednesday, and the court subsequently remanded them to judicial custody after rejecting their bail pleas.​

Notably, the Info Valley Police had arrested a grocery shop owner for allegedly trying to rape a non-Odia female student pursuing an MBA study at a private management college in Bhubaneswar a couple of days ago.​

–IANS

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