Sundargarh: A woman sarpanch of Odisha's Sundargarh district allegedly sold an orphan minor girl to a Gujarat couple for Rs 5 lakh while the duo had engaged the victim as domestic help and used to torture her.

The accused, identified as Dalrasa Gudia, sarpanch of Birabira panchayat under Sadar block of the district, reportedly committed the offence in July of 2022. The matter has now come to fore as the girl managed to return to her village and narrated the ordeal before a woman of the locality.

On the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl, police have registered a case against the sarpanch and the couple under relevant sections of the IPC and started an investigation. The sarpanch has absconded to evade arrest.

According to reports, the sarpanch had sent the girl to a person namely Vinay Patel in Jharsuguda by telling her that she would learn tailoring at an institute there and become employable. Later, Vinay took the girl to Ahmedabad on the pretext of giving her training at a bigger institute.

However, Vinay engaged her as a domestic help at his house, where he and his wife Sunita started harassing and torturing her. The couple told the victim that the sarpanch took Rs 5 lakh from the two for handing her over to them.

As the girl expressed her wish to return to her village, the couple confined her to a closed room for around six months. They released the girl and allowed her to go to her village in July of this year as she promised to come back.

After coming to her village and staying there for some days, the sarpanch forced her to go to Ahmedabad again, following which the victim went to the Dharuadihi police station to lodge a complaint in this regard.

Allegedly, the police didn't register the complaint. The girl then met the SP on August 5 and apprised the police official about the incident.

On the direction of the SP, police filed a case and recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC.