Three persons were arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old college student in front of her boyfriend near a beach in Odisha's Puri, police said on Monday.
The incident took place when the survivor and her boyfriend were sitting near the Baliharchandi temple on Saturday. The accused then started recording them and asked them for money in return for deleting those videos, the police said.
When they refused to pay, two persons in the group allegedly raped the woman while the others assaulted her boyfriend and tied him to a tree.
The girl filed a case on Monday evening after coming out of the trauma of the alleged sexual assault, the police said, adding that the three accused, who are all locals, have been arrested. They reportedly deleted the videos before being arrested.
Another accused is currently on the run.
Odisha has seen a rise in sexual assault cases in recent months. A woman was allegedly raped by three persons at a lodge in Bhubaneswar last Wednesday. The accused, who were arrested on Saturday, lured the woman, a singer, with the assurance of handing her a big musical project, and took her to a lodge and offered her a sedative-laced drink.
On September 5, a 14-year-old girl, who was on the way to her sister's village to witness Ganesh idol immersion, was allegedly raped by a 28-year-old man in Kandhamal.
The accused, who was arrested five days later, offered the class 9 student a lift in his car and allegedly raped her inside the vehicle.
Last month, a 10-year-old tribal girl was allegedly raped by a 20-year-old youth of her community in Mayurbhanj. The accused was later arrested.
(With inputs from Dev Kumar Ghosh)
