Ganjam: Twenty-eight-year-old Desharath Pradhan comes to Gopalpur beach with his wife at least once a month for a date—to feel the cold beach air, eat street food, and spend quality time with his partner. But this time, he will take a pause from this routine. The alleged horrific gangrape of a college student on an isolated stretch of the beach on Sunday, before her partner, has shook him.
“We also try to look for isolated places whenever we come here, away from the crowd, where we can talk—as we live in a joint family, we hardly get time. But after hearing about this incident, I won’t come here. This is really scary. This could happen to us also,” said Pradhan, holding the hand of his wife, sitting on the beach. The couple belongs to the nearby Khurda district.
The gangrape has put tourists on alert, and left local people scared. It has shaken not just the quiet coastal neighbourhood but the entire state, triggering a political storm in the capital. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has said that “atrocities against women are on the rise” in the state. Apart from Gopalpur, two more incidents of gangrape have been reported from Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar districts in the last three days. The Congress Wednesday organised a protest rally in wake of the Gopalpur incident. On Tuesday, hundreds of Congress protesters were arrested when they tried to enter the prohibited area near the CM house in Bhubaneswar. The case brings a scary reminder of the Hampi gangrape earlier in March in which two women, including an Israeli, were gangraped, and a man murdered while they were stargazing.
The alleged violent assault, blackmail, and gangrape has left the woman broken and her partner traumatised.
“Initially the girl wasn’t ready to file the complaint, it was an oral complaint at the beginning. She was scared that her parents would find out. We had to counsel her with all the sensitivity and make sure that her privacy is protected,” said Savarana Vivek M., Superintendent of Police, Berhampur.
“I don’t want my family to find out about this and neither my boyfriend’s family,” the victim told the police.
Police have arrested all 10 accused; six adults were sent to jail and four minors to juvenile homes. But the fear remains. The survivor is in touch with the police, with only her boyfriend by her side.
The crime scene—a stretch of coastline known among local people for drinking and loitering—had no CCTV cameras, no lights, and no police patrols. Now, it carries the silence of fear. The National Commission for Women has raised concerns over the complete lack of basic security measures at the beach, which was notorious for drinking and loitering.
According to NCRB data, Odisha’s conviction rate for rape cases was just 6.6 per cent in 2022, far below the national average. India’s national conviction rate for rape cases that went to trial in 2022 was around 27 per cent.
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An outing turned into horror
It was around 6pm when the young couple went to the Raja festival, a three-day Odia festival that celebrates womanhood. They walked around 1 km to sit in the secluded area, behind which the accused were drinking. The group of young men clicked the couple’s pictures and approached them with a blackmail—give money or they would make the pictures public.
They took the money from the woman’s wallet and then asked the partner for more. He didn’t have cash, so they made him pay through UPI. After this, 3–4 men took the girl away between the blue-colored beachside shops made of tin. Others held her partner back forcefully.
“The man was in that secluded area, and they dragged the girl down and raped her. Three men raped her, among whom the prime accused Pramod Nayak has a criminal history,” said Vivek M.
The incident took place between 7:30 and 9 pm. The accused threatened the couple of consequences if they made a police complaint.
The blue tin shops at the beach were constructed by the Gopalpur Notified Area Council (NAC), the local civic body, to be given to shopkeepers, but that plan didn’t take off.
“The couple was scared at first that they were being followed. When they were sure that these men had gone away, they went to the nearby police station on the beach. After the complaint, all available police forces were put on to find the accused,” added Vivek M.
In a local search that lasted less than 45 minutes, the police found three of the accused standing with their bikes. Another was nabbed after a tip off. The accused had gone to a hotel and brazenly asked the owner for food. “He just said, ‘The police are looking for me, please give me some food,’” one of the accused told the hotel manager, and that is when the manager called the police.
The police launched a night search operation raiding the neighborhood houses and nabbed all accused.
“The crime was heinous. We found them as fast as we could. Seeing the nature of the crime, we will request the Juvenile Justice Board to prosecute the four minors as adults under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015,” said Vivek M.
The adult accused are Pramod Nayak (23), Baburam Dalai (19), Laxmana Pradhan (24), Kunal Pradhan (24), Deepak Tarain (19), and Om Pradhan (19), all residents of Ganjam district who live 25–30 km away from the beach.
Nayak, the main accused, worked at a Bengaluru company and was visiting his hometown. He was previously arrested by the Purusottampur Police in Ganjam for an attempted murder and booked under Section 307 of the IPC, as well as for illegal bomb-making under Section 3 of the Explosives Act. Baburam Dalai, 19, is a Class XII student while Kunal Pradhan works in Ranchi in a hotel.
“Pramod Nayak made this plan to go to the beach. He called his two friends from Borupada village, and then they picked six others from Sikri village. Two others also joined them,” said a source in the police.
They all came to party at this tourist place, where thousands of people come with their families.
The beach is mostly crowded with families and couples, with people from neighbouring districts such as Khurda and Nayagarh also visiting. There are also tourists from West Bengal.
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The Tourism of Gopalpur
Gopalpur is a popular tourist attraction; even for some foreign tourists. According to the tourism department data, 2,90,050 people visited Gopalpur in 2023. The entire beach is 10 km long, but the active area where most of the crowd gathers and shops are is around 3 km long. For this entire beach, there is only one police post with one vehicle.
An old woman who runs a small kiosk selling channa said she has seen the patrolling vehicles at night but they don’t go to the isolated pocket.
“They come with the siren. They do check the beach every day, but they don’t go up there where the couple was seated. The beach is very long, and they keep roaming around from one point to another,” the woman told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The local people are scared that the incident might affect their business. People might stop coming here, and they will have to bear the cost.
“It was tourists who did this. The local people always protect and help the tourists, but when such an incident happens, the name of the area gets ruined and people might feel this is an unsafe space,” she added.
In 2015, a police cell—dedicated units to address tourist’s issues—was set up at Gopalpur. These cells also came up at seven other places in Odisha—three at Lingaraj, Dhauli, and Nandankanan police stations, three in Puri Sea Beach, Konark, and Brahmagiri police stations, and one at Chandipur police station.
But these cells are not functioning effectively and are facing challenges as the infrastructure is not enough and more manpower is needed. The police personnel from the cells are busy with routine police station work most of the time.
“These police personnel are supposed to deal with tourist-related issues, but they have to do the routine policing jobs,” said a police officer from the cell, on the condition of anonymity.
Most of these cells get complaints about robbery and theft of the belongings of the tourists. Sometimes a family member is lost, so they go to these cells.
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The political storm
The gangrape has sparked a fierce political outcry and reached the capital. Congress workers protested in Bhubaneswar, demanding Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s resignation, alleging a “complete collapse of law and order.” The BJP, which formed its first government in Odisha, has promised “swift and exemplary” justice—even as criticism mounts over the lack of basic security at a popular tourist site.
“The government is not strong enough to take firm action—that’s why such incidents are happening. There was no patrolling, no lights, and no CCTV. How is this possible? This is a disaster for the BJP government,” alleged Sonali Sahoo, spokesperson of the Odisha Congress.
Gopalpur MLA and Odisha’s Commerce, Transport, Steel & Mines Minister, Bibhuti Kumar Jena, visited the crime spot with the Superintendent of Police on Wednesday.
“In the past, the government used to say the law will take its own course. But here, we arrested all 10 accused within a day. The unsafe infrastructure at the beach was created by the previous government—we will demolish it soon,” he said.
The party which ruled Odisha for decades, Biju Janata Dal, has not staged any official protest but several leaders have voiced criticism.
“Since the BJP came to power, crimes against women have increased. Rape cases have risen by 8 per cent in the last year alone. The state government is celebrating its one-year anniversary, but women’s safety has worsened,” said BJD leader Lekhasri Samantsinghar. “The Women and Child Development Minister should resign on moral grounds. The government needs a zero-tolerance SOP against crimes like these.”
Congress has also linked the Ganjam incident to other recent sexual violence cases, including the alleged rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Keonjhar reported Monday. “We are here to demand the Chief Minister’s resignation,” said Congress leader Ajay Kumar Lallu at a protest in Bhubaneswar.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to visit Odisha on 20 June, political temperatures are rising—and women’s safety has become an unavoidable flashpoint in the BJP’s first year in power.
As political leaders trade blame and government promises strict action against the perpetrators, the 20-year-old survivor has remained in police care, protecting her identity. Her world has fallen apart, her only comfort is her partner by her side.
“She’s locked away somewhere for her safety. But what about her freedom, her future?” asked Shalini Mishra, a tourist from Bhubaneswar, standing barefoot on the Gopalpur shore. “I keep thinking—what if it had been me?”
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)