A 26-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped by robbers in Bubaneswar early Monday morning. Police have arrested the three accused in this connection.

The woman, who worked in a private hospital, had recently shifted to Maitri Vihar in Bhubaneswar with her two-year-old girl.

The accused have been identified as Vikash Naik (26), Jaga Singh alias Katia (25) and Tukuna Nayak (27). While Jaga and Vikash have been arrested on charges of rape, Tukuna helped them in the execution of their plan.

The police said on that day, she was alone with her daughter in the house when two burglars broke into her flat.

They looted her ornaments and the mobile phone. They even threatened her with a knife. When the child woke up and started crying, they threatened to kill the child and placed the knife on her throat. The woman was in a state of panic.

When they found that there was no male member in the house, they raped the woman and threatened to kill the kid if she screamed for help, police added.

Later, they locked the door from outside and fled. In the morning, the neighbours rescued her after hearing her cry. She lodged a complaint with the police.

Police commissioner Suresh Dev Datta Singh addressed a press conference on Wednesday and said how the police tracked the case within 24 hours.

The commissionerate police in a release said, “Investigation transpired that the victim lady is staying at Nila Madhav Niwas (Biju Puuca ghara) multi-storied building allotted for displaced bastee (slum) people.”

It said: “On Sunday-Monday intervening night, the accused persons Tukuna, Jaga and Vikash were present inside the campus as the house of Tukuna is situated inside the same premise. At about 2 am, the victim kept open the door of the balcony and took her dinner.”

The release said “Finding the door open, the accused Vikash and Jaga entered the house by scaling the balcony.”