Bhubaneswar: In a startling case of delayed justice, the Sambalpur Police have set a precedent in shoddy investigation into a case of missing woman.
A lady who went to distribute invitation cards for her elder daughter’s wedding did not come back home. The incident was reported to Sambalpur police in 2011.The police simply entered the complaint in their diary and did not bother to turn the case entries into a First Information Report (FIR).
The woman’s son and daughters remained in the dark about their mother’s mysterious disappearance. The children grew up with the support of other family members and hoped to hear about their mother from the investigating officials. The cops remained oblivious of the case for years!
The younger daughter in the family, Vijayinee Mishra, meanwhile, vowed to find out her missing mother years after the police failed to trace her.
Currently, a PhD scholar in the Jawarharlal Nehru University (JNU), Vijayinee filed many RTI applications with the police department to get details of the case with a view to seeking legal remedies. She also filed petitions before the office of the Director General of Police (DGP), CID, Additional DG (law and order), and met the DIG, SP and other officials to trace her mother but to no avail.
Ultimately, bowing to Vijayinee’s determination, top officials directed the Sambalpur police to file an FIR and investigate the matter.
Eight years down the line, the Sambalpur police who were reluctant initially to take up the case and were not interested to draft an FIR from the diary entries of the missing report, ultimately took up the case.
The police swung into action in the last few months and nabbed the main accused in the case as part of the investigation.
The police recently told the aggrieved family members that their mother was murdered in 2011 (when the diary entry was made) as per the confession of the main accused. The family members had given details of the suspects, their phone numbers, residences and other details but the district police did not act until they received a direction from the top brass.
Interestingly, the police have now started tracing the body of the victim who went missing eight years ago.
“The prime accused, who has confessed to killing the woman way back in 2011 before dumping her body near his village, has been arrested,” the investigating officer and SDPO BS Udgata said.
“We have sent the forensic teams to exhume the body so that the DNA from her skeletons could be matched with her family members to establish the crime and make out a case accordingly,” he added.
However, in spite of digging at several places close to the village on the suggestion of the accused, the police have failed to exhume the body.
The complaints, however, claim the accused has been misleading the police to deviate the matter. The family members also have claimed that they now fear threat to their lives from the accused and his family members.
“The investigation process was scuttled due to stereotyped methods the local police adopted while dealing with cases of missing women. Most treat such cases as elopement,” Vijayinee told Orissa POST.
Vijayinee also added that she visited the police station umpteen times and filed multiple RTI pleas to get justice which was denied to her for over eight years.
