Overview

• Police said a 19-year-old college student was assaulted near Baliharchandi temple after local youths filmed the couple and demanded money.
• The survivor lodged an FIR on Monday evening and underwent a medical examination, according to officials.
• Siba Sahoo and Manoj Sahoo, known as Kalia, were among those arrested, with Kalia detained near the Odisha–Andhra Pradesh border.
• Investigators sent the accused’s mobile phones to the State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Bhubaneswar for data retrieval to support the probe.
• Puri police booked the prime accused under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as political leaders pressed for tighter security at the temple area.