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Bhubaneswar, Jul 27 (PTI) Police have arrested BJD corporator Amaresh Jena, who was absconding ever since he was booked in a rape case in the state capital, an officer said on Sunday.

Jena, a prominent BJD leader in the state capital was booked under the BNS sections 64(2) (rape), 89 (committing miscarriage without woman's permission), 296 (obscene act), and 352 (criminal intimidation), besides section 6 of the POCSO Act, at the Laxmisagar police station, where the survivor lodged a complaint on Wednesday, the police said.

Jena was arrested from Nilagiri area in Balasore district and he is being brought to Bhubaneswar. A special team of Laxmisagar police station traced him in Balasore district, where he was hiding to evade arrest, he said.

Following his arrest, the BJD has suspended Jena, a corporator of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), from the party with immediate effect. Party president Naveen Patnaik has issued an order in this effect.

The police have already arrested five associates of the BJD corporator on Saturday night.

"Five persons have been arrested for harbouring the accused person, Amresh Jena," the police said in a statement on Saturday midnight and added that these five persons provided conveyance and assisted the accused Amresh Jena in evading apprehension.

The five arrested individuals hail from various parts of Khurda and Jagatsinghpur districts, and were forwarded to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected, they said.

A 19-year-old woman in a written complaint at Laxmisagar police station accused the BJD corporator of rape, foeticide, cheating, and criminal intimidation. Jena, while absconding, told a section of the media that he was innocent and framed by the ruling BJP.

In her complaint, the survivor alleged that the corporator sexually exploited her with the promise of marriage when she was 17 years old. She claims that Jena took her to Puri, engaged in physical relations, and in February 2024, when she was still a minor, forced her to abort a two-month pregnancy by administering pills.

The survivor also alleged that she was threatened and directed not to reveal the matter to anyone.

Meanwhile, police recorded the statement of the survivor, and she also underwent a medical test.

BJD's Bhubaneswar unit president and former minister Ashok Panda said: "It is a sensitive case and will be referred to the party's disciplinary committee. For now, the law will take its own course." 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)