Bhubaneswar: Despite growing public anger against rising cases of sexual assault against minors being reported from across the country, two separate incidents of child rape were reported from Odisha on Monday. Ironically, these incidents were reported on a day when President Ram Nath Kovind promulgated an ordinance proposing stringent punishment, including death penalty, to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.


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According to reports, the two girls - one aged six years and the other four years - were allegedly raped in Cuttack and Kendrapara districts of Odisha.


Meanwhile, the local police have arrested one person in connection with the incident. 


The two girls - one aged six years and the other four years -- were allegedly raped in Cuttack and Kendrapara districts and one person was arrested, the police said.


The six-year-old girl was raped, strangulated and left inside the school campus at Jagannathpur village in Cuttack district by the accused presuming her to be dead last evening, the police said.


The girl had gone to purchase biscuits in her village but when she did not return after some time, her family members and local villagers set out to look for her.


After a frantic search for over an hour, the girl was found lying in an unconscious state and without clothes in the school campus.


''The girl was lying in a pool of blood with visible injury marks on the head and mouth," the police said.


She was immediately rushed to a nearby private nursing home from where she was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.


Sharing more details of the crime, Salepur sub-divisional police officer P K Jena said the condition of the minor girl is "very critical" as she suffered deep injuries in her head, face, neck and chest.


There are injuries in her private parts, the doctors attending to her at the hospital said.


A 25-year-old man of the same village was arrested today in connection with the incident, the SDPO said.


Taking note of the incident, State Health Minister Pratap Jena visited the hospital and later told newsmen that a team of at least 13 doctors drawn from several departments is attending on the girl.


A case under the POSCO Act and IPC sections 376(2)(rape) and 307 (attempt to murder) was registered on the basis of a written complaint filed by the girl's grandfather, Salepur Police Inspector DK Mallick said.


In the second case, a minor boy was taken into custody today on the charge of raping a four-year-old at Tikhiri village in Kendrapara district, police said.


The girl had been raped near the Paika riverbed on April 20 allegedly by the boy, who is a student of a local school. The matter came to light following a complaint lodged by the girl's parents yesterday, they said.


Both the victim and the boy were medically examined and the sexual assault was confirmed, the police said.


(With PTI inputs)