Cuttack: The Cuttack District Police arrested two individuals, including a woman employee of the Cuttack Collectorate, on charges of defrauding a rape survivor.

In a press briefing, Cuttack Additional DSP Amitendra Panda revealed one of the two arrested Government employees was responsible for disbursing compensation to rape survivors under the Welfare Department. Per Panda, the employee had been sharing information about upcoming disbursals with another accused, Sangeeta Singh, also employed at the Collectorate.

Sangeeta allegedly contacted the survivors and demanded a cut from their compensation, under the pretext of facilitating the payment process.

The matter came to light after one of the survivors lodged a complaint at Lalbag Police Station. During the preliminary investigation, it was found Sangeeta had demanded ₹1 lakh from the complainant in exchange for processing the Government-provided compensation.

The complainant subsequently transferred the money to two PhonePe accounts provided by the accused.

Both women have been arrested, and a further investigation is underway. DSP Panda urged the public to come forward with information, if they have faced similar fraudulent activities and encouraged other victims to file complaints against the accused.