Cuttack: The Crime Branch (CB) Thursday challenged the verdict of Bhubaneswar First Additional Sessions Court with regard to the Pipli gangrape and murder case in Orissa High Court.
The CB urged the HC to quash the lower court verdict on the sensitive case and pronounce appropriate punishment against the two accused who were earlier acquitted by the additional sessions judge.
The lower court had acquitted accused Prashant Pradhan and his brother Sukanta Pradhan in the absence of satisfactory evidence against the duo.
The lower court verdict had triggered a controversy in the state. Many people criticised the CB for its ‘‘failure to corroborate evidence” to provide justice to the victim’s family.
Some miscreants had allegedly gangraped a 19-year-old girl of Arjungoda under Pipli police limits in Puri district November 28, 2011. The girl, a member of the SC community, was rescued in a critical condition from a farmland.
The victim was admitted to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar and subsequently shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack when her condition deteriorated. The girl died at SCB June 21, 2012. The state government had ordered a CB probe into the incident. A judicial commission was also set up to look into the incident.
