Odisha: Two brothers, aged 60 and 58, arrested for raping 15-yr-old for a year

Police said the two men, along with an accomplice, recently threatened to kill the girl to force her to go for an abortion

Updated on: Jul 25, 2025, 22:50:47 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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Two brothers, aged 60 and 58, have been arrested on Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district on charges of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl who visited the ashram where they worked, police said on Friday.

Police identified the two brothers, who were subsequently arrested, as Bhagyadhar Das (60) and Panchanan Das (58). (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Police said the two men, along with an accomplice, recently threatened to bury live the girl to force her to go for an abortion. The girl managed to escape and told her family about the rape who filed a police complaint.

Police identified the two brothers, who were subsequently arrested, as Bhagyadhar Das (60) and Panchanan Das (58), who worked as a cook and pujari respectively at an ashram in the district’s Kujang block. Police said the rape survivor had come across the two during her visits to the ashram and the two raped her on several ocassions,

But after brothers found out that she was pregnant, they pressurised the girl to abort. When she refused, they persuaded her to come to an isolated spot where they had dug a huge hole.

Tirtol sub divisional police officer Chinmay Raut said the accused offered to pay for and facilitate an abortion. “They lured her to a location where they had dug a ditch and threatened to bury her alive if she refused to go for an abortion. The survivor, somehow, managed to escape and narrated the ordeal to her father,” Raut said.

“She then underwent a medical examination at the district headquarters hospital, and a case was registered at Kujang police station on basis of a complaint by her father,” said Tirtol SDPO Chinmay Raut.

A search is on for the third suspect.

In the FIR, the girl’s father also alleged he had initially reported the matter to a local panchayat functionary, who offered him money to suppress the incident and even threatened him if he reported the matter to the police.

Meanwhile, in Balasore district, the police arrested four men who allegedly attempted kill a 20-year-old woman after failing to rape her while she had gone to take bath at a pond. The four allegedly followed the woman when she went to the village pond and assaulted her on Thursday.

The suspects also attempted to rape the woman and banged her head against a stone for protesting. She, however, managed to escape and told her family about the incident.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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