A middle-aged married woman was allegedly raped repeatedly by a 'tantrik' for 79 days in front of her two-and-half-year-old son in Odisha's Balasore district, police said. Police rescued the woman and her child from a locked room on May 6 but the accused managed to escape and a manhunt has been launched to nab him.

In her police complaint, the survivor alleged that her husband and in-laws had forced her to stay with the tantrik to resolve a marital discord between the woman and her in-laws. The woman, who got married in 2017, claimed she had to undergo physical and mental torture by her in-laws for dowry.