Congress student wing president allegedly drugs and rapes 19-year-old student in Odisha

In another case of sexual assault in a row this month in Odisha, the president of the Congress's students' wing, National Students' Union of India, has been nabbed for allegedly raping a 19-year-old girl in Bhubaneshwar. Udit Pradhan allegedly drugged the survivor, who was an engineering student, and sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in March. The survivor said in her complaint that she met two friends at Bhubaneswar's Master Canteen Chowk on March 18, where Pradhan met them and told her he is the president of the Odisha wing of NSUI.

"He sat next to me and touched me inappropriately. They then took me to a hotel, checked into a room, and started drinking. I don't drink, so I refused. Udit Pradhan offered me a glass of a cold drink. When I drank it, I started feeling dizzy and asked them to drop me home. I then passed out," the survivor said in her complaint. "When I regained consciousness, I found Udit Pradhan lying next to me. I felt pain and realised something wrong had happened to me," she added in her complaint.

This came amid Congress's constant targeting of the BJP for rising crimes against women in Odisha. Now, the BJP leader Amit Malviya slammed the Congress. He took to the social media platform X and wrote, "Shameful but not surprising...Udit Pradhan, the Odisha State President of Congress's student wing, has been arrested for the rape of a 19-year-old engineering student in Bhubaneswar...".

"This comes close on the heels of another horrific case -- where student leaders from both BJD and Congress were complicit in driving the Balasore sexual assault victim to suicide through a vile campaign of character assassination," he further added.

Previous cases in Odisha this month

Self-immolation over sexual harassment

A 20-year-old student of the Fakir Mohan University in India's Odisha set herself ablaze after allegedly being sexually harassed by a teacher, Samir Kumar Sahu; now she has died. The girl succumbed to her injuries a day after the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, visited her at the AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday (July 14).

The girl was a second-year student of B.Ed (integrated) at the Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Balasore. She set herself ablaze on Saturday (July 12) outside the chamber of the college principal. She filed a complaint against Samir Kumar Sahu, but the Internal Complaints Committee of the institution gave a clean chit to him, who was the head of the education department.

The girl had accused Sahu of making sexual advances against her and then threatening to fail her in examinations if she did not give in to her demands. The girl was an active member of the RSS-controlled Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. She had even approached CM Majhi, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the national commission for women, as well as district police officials about her plight - but none could give her justice.

“Despite adequate resuscitation and all possible supportive management, including renal replacement therapy at Burns ICU, she could not be revived and was declared clinically dead at 11.46 p.m. on July 14,” says a bulletin of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Teen girl abducted, set on fire

A teenage girl in India's Odisha was abducted and set on fire, after which a massive protest erupted in the capital city, Bhubaneswar, and police imposed the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Section 163 outside AIIMS, where the girl was receiving treatment. As per a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jagmohan Meena, half the protesters dispersed, while the rest were detained outside the hospital for disrupting the medical services in the hospital.

"Different groups held protests outside the burn unit. The resultant chaos caused numerous issues for the patients admitted here and their attendants. AIIMS even issued a notice saying protest was not allowed in the premises and that chaos is causing problems for patients and doctors in the hospital," DCP Meena told news agency ANI.

"Our zonal ACP, who is also the Executive Magistrate, declared BNSS Section 163, after which 50% people left. The remaining were detained. We will ensure that further protests do not take place and that people do not face any inconvenience here. One platoon of force will remain deployed here so that the situation can be monitored," the officer added.