Two minor girls, who were allegedly raped by a 28-year-old man, were medically examined at a government hospital in Khasmahal on Monday.

The accused, Raju Sharma, a resident of Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, is a business partner of the victims’ father.

Though the rape has not been confirmed, sources in the medical team claimed that the allegations are true.

The victims, who are 13 and 15 years old and residents of Barbil in Keonjhar district of Odisha, are currently in the custody of Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Jamshedpur, at Sonari.

They are in process of deposition before a judicial magistrate in the Jamshedpur court in a case registered with Bistupur police on the basis of an FIR lodged by the victims’ aunt on Saturday night.

The aunt, a resident of Jugsalai, had claimed in the FIR that her two nieces were allegedly raped at Haldia in West Bengal, and also molested by the accused in a car near Rajasthan Bhavan in Bistupur on Saturday evening.

Pushparani Tirkey, the chairperson of the CWC, Jamshedpur, quoted the victims as saying that they studied in a private school at Barbil.

However, their father had decided to put them in a boarding school at Kharagpur in Bengal.

“On June 1, the 46-year-old father took his elder daughter to Kharagpur, accompanied by Sharma. Having travelled to Kharagpur by train, the three stayed at a relative’s house there. Sharma took the girl along while on a work trip to Haldia, where he went over to a relative’s house and raped her,” Tirkey quoted the elder victim as saying.

The CWC chairperson said, the girl, her father and Raju returned to Barbil from Kharagpur on June 14. The victim who had not spoken of the alleged rape to anyone, was reluctant to be accompanied by the accused.

However, the girl’s mother thought she must not have felt comfortable being the only girl in the group, and sent her younger daughter with them as well.

“They went to the relative’s house in Kharagpur again. This time, Sharma pleaded that he had some work left in Haldia and took the younger girl with him and raped her. They returned to Jamshedpur the next day,” the CWC chairperson alleged.

While the victims’ father travelled by train from Kharagpur to Barbil, Raju took the girls in his car.

He managed to convince the father to return to Barbil alone as the lockdown rules allowed only three persons, including the driver, in a car.

According to Tirkey, the girls were supposed to stay at their aunt’s house in Jugsalai.

On the way, Sharma, who was driving the car, stopped near Rajasthan Bhavan in Bistupur and asked the girls to follow him inside the building to freshen up.

The girls did not get down from the vehicle, apprehending foul play again.

While the accused was inside Rajasthan Bhavan, the victims had spoken among themselves about the incidents in Haldia.

At their aunt’s place, they revealed everything and she lodged the FIR against Sharma on Saturday night.

Superintendent of police (city), Subhash Chandra Jat, told The Telegraph Online, “This is a serious allegation. We have started investigation into the case under the POCSO Act.”