Bhubaneswar: Commissionerate police and railway protection force (RPF) rescued a seven‑year‑old girl, who went missing outside Cuttack railway station, and arrested her abductor on Monday, averting what they suspect to be a case of sexual exploitation and trafficking.The girl was left briefly unattended outside Cuttack railway station on Saturday afternoon by her grandparents, who went to fetch food. When they returned, she was missing, prompting them to lodge a complaint at Chauliaganj police station.Accused Rajkishore Routray (52) of Mangalabag in Cuttack allegedly lured the child away after convincing her that her grandparents would not return.“We constituted 10 special teams, led by ACPs and inspectors, to trace the child,” police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said.Police scanned around 100 CCTV camera footage across multiple railway stations in Cuttack, Khurda, Jajpur and Bhadrak districts. According to police, Routray walked nearly 3km along the railway track with the girl before reaching Kaipadar station in Khurda late Saturday night. He fed the child and consumed liquor near the station, police said.According to police sources, an alert RPF constable noticed his suspicious behaviour on the station premises and confronted him. Routray fled, abandoning the child, who was rescued safely. Based on the RPF’s tip‑off, police intensified the manhunt and arrested him from Balikuda station in Cuttack district in the early hours of Monday.Police said Routray, who has no family, had earlier been arrested in a theft case under Jankia police limits in Khurda in Sept 2025. “We suspect his motive was to sexually abuse the child and later sell her for money. To evade capture, he repeatedly changed his appearance by altering clothes and shaving his beard,” another a officer said.
