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Bhubaneswar, July 7: Around eight men recently entered a ladies’ hostel near Buddha Park under Chandrasekharpur police limits and molested several inmates.
We hear of Commissionerate Police efforts to provide security to women, but when the women in distress seek police help, no police machinery reaches them. And this is the irony.
The girls were so frightened after this incident that they did not respond to the queries of a news reporter of Oriya daily Dharitri. Most of the hostellers are employed with a telecom company as tele-callers, and their colleagues narrated their ordeal.
The girls alleged eight men recently gained entry into their hostel at 2am and eventually reached their rooms.
The men barged into their rooms by brandishing a gun and knives.
“They came in turns, first two men came inside and molested us, and then the other four came inside and they too physically harassed us. When I protested, one of them slapped me,” said one of the inmates.
Another girl alleged when they informed the Chandrasekharpur police about the incident, the cops said they had no vehicle to reach them. “The PCR vehicle, however, reached the spot after an hour, but by then the miscreants had fled after molesting and looting us,” she said.
The girls said the cops arrested two of the accused after they took them for identification at a construction site. The accused, however, were let off the next day after their mentor furnished the security money for their release.
Subhash Chandra Sahoo, a colleague of one of the girls, said the girls are under trauma after the incident and were even planning to leave their jobs anticipating similar harassment.
Dayanidhi Swain, a social activist, criticised the police for not patrolling in the area properly. The residents of the area also expressed their apprehension over such incidents in the area and demanded a police outpost in the locality. “We need a police outpost immediately as there is absolutely no presence of cops in the area,” Saroj Samantray, a resident, said. Most of the accused are carpenters engaged in a construction site, sources said.
Contractor Siraj Khan who had appointed these migrant workers, however, rebuffed the claims of the girls saying these men were from outside and could never indulge in such heinous acts. “The workers are from Bengal and they will not have the guts to indulge in such crimes,” Khan said. Chandrasekharpur police station inspector-in-charge Devi Pratap Swain denied having received any such complaint.
“We have so far received no such complaint,” he said.
