Male athlete stripped, sexually harassed by seniors in Odisha capital

Bhubaneswar: The Infocity police today arrested three senior athletes on charges of sexually harassing their junior in the hostel room of a private university here, during the ongoing Odisha State Athletics Meet.

The two arrestees include two from Rourkela team and one from the India Post. They are Suraj Thakur, Asish Patra and Jagannath Das.

The arrest was made after family of the victim, a 16-year-old boy hailing from Rourkela, lodged a complaint with Infocity police here in this regard yesterday.

Reportedly, around 23 players from Rourkela had come to Bhubaneswar to participate in the three-day State Athletics Meet, which culminated on April 10. On April 9, four senior players allegedly abused the minor, a Class 10 student, with filthy langue as he failed to qualify in long jump event.

A day after, the four accused allegedly called him to their hostel room and later misbehaved with him. The complainant also alleged that they stripped him and later made a video call to two of his friends to further humiliate him.

After the victim narrated his plight before his parents, they lodged a complaint at Infocity police station seeking strong action against the accused.