The village sarpanch allegedly locked woman in her house and attempted to rape her (representational)
A sarpanch was arrested from Cuttack On Tuesday for allegedly attempting to rape a married woman at Banamalipur village in Jajpur district, the police said today.
The police had launched a massive manhunt for the accused Tapas Chandra Ray on the basis of an FIR filed by the 30-year-old woman.
According to the complaint, the accused, who is a father of two, went to the woman's house in Banamalipur on the night of 31st March. She was alone in her house when the sarpanch locked the door from inside and tried to rape her, the police said quoting the FIR.
When she raised an alarm, the accused fled her house.
The woman narrated the incident to her husband after he returned home the same night. The victim filed a complaint with the police the next day, police said.
"Based on the complaint, we conducted medical examination on the victim and recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC. We also launched a manhunt to arrest the accused as he was on the run ever since the complaint was filed against him by the woman," they said.
After a three week long chase, the police finally arrested the accused from Cuttack.