Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has asked the Chief Secretary and director general of police (DGP) to submit separate reports within a fortnight on the suicide of a minor tribal girl of Kunduli in Koraput district.
While expressing concern over the suicide of the girl, who was allegedly gang raped by men in uniform October 10 last year, the OHRC acting chairperson Justice B K Mishra said copies of the petitions along with the enclosures should be given to the Chief Secretary and the DGP. The commission also wanted to know from the Chief Secretary and the DGP what assistance was extended to the victim and her family by the state after the alleged rape incident. OHRC has posted the case to February 9, 2018.
Earlier, advocate Nishikanta Mishra and human rights activist Akhanda appeared before the Commission and filed two separate petitions drawing the attention of the Commission on the suicide of the victim in the alleged gang rape. The petitioners said that though Orissa is a welfare state, the administration has failed to protect the life of a poor minor girl belonging to the marginalised section of the society. Akhanda also alleged that December 29, 2017 the victim had made allegations at various authorities and raised questions about the treatment provided to her. Earlier, when the girl was alive, the Commission during a hearing had directed the state government to undertake counselling and to take care of the victim by providing all necessary assistance.
The Commission’s direction was not probably implemented by the state, for which the poor girl chose to end her life, Akhanda said in his petition.
The girl was allegedly gang raped by a group of men in uniform October 10 last year when she was returning from Kunduli market near her village in Maoist-infested Koraput.
She committed suicide at her house January 22. As the incident raised a state-wide hue and cry, opposition Congress and BJP had called a strike Wednesday bringing normal life to a standstill.
The girl committed suicide even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered a judicial probe into the incident and also a Crime Branch probe into the alleged gang rape incident. The girl was, however, frustrated after Odisha Police claimed that she was not raped at all. Her family members also blamed the police and the government for the suicide.
PIL seeks CBI investigation
Cuttack: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed with the Orissa High Court (HC) Thursday seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Kunduli gangrape victim’s suicide. In his PIL, social worker Achyutananda Swain has made nine persons, including Chief Secretary, CBI, Home Secretary, Director General of Police (DGP), and Inspector General (IG), Collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Koraput, parties to the case. The petitioner has informed the HC that the gangrape survivor’s suicide has created uproars in several quarters. Even as the state government had ordered a judicial probe into the sensitive incident, the probe is likely to be affected, Swain apprehended. “It seems the victim had resorted to the extreme step after losing faith in the system,” the petitioner said. To unearth the truth behind the victim’s suicide, an independent agency like CBI should be given the charge of the probe, read the PIL.
PNN
