Bhubaneswar/Rayagada: The mob attack on two NGO workers including a woman, who was allegedly molested and disrobed in Odisha’s Rayagada district recently, sparked a political row Saturday.
Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly Naveen Patnaik described it as a “barbaric and shameful” act, while the ruling BJP asserted that several people were arrested in connection with the case, and all the guilty persons would be punished.
The Congress also alleged that the incident involving two NGO workers from Delhi is a “glaring sign of the collapse of law and order” in the state.
The incident took place at Kandulguda village under Kalyansinghpur police station on the night of June 16, when villagers mistook the 22-year-old woman and a man of similar age as child-lifters and assaulted them, Rayagada SP Raj Prasad said.
The police have so far arrested 21 people and registered three criminal cases.
“More arrests could be made in the coming days after verifying the video footage,” Prasad told reporters.
The two were undertaking research activities under an NGO in Odisha’s Kalahandi, Kandhmal and Rayagada districts.
“The locals assaulted me, pulled me by my hair, tore my clothes and touched me inappropriately even though we had no link with child lifters,” the woman told reporters.
Both of them returned home after treatment at a local hospital.
Expressing concern over the incident, BJD president Naveen Patnaik said this has raised serious questions about “humanity and the dignity” of women in Odisha.
In an X post, Patnaik said, “This heinous, barbaric incident that occurred in Rayagada, Kalyansinghpur, with a Delhi student has shaken, shamed, and worried the entire Odisha.”
The former chief minister raised questions on the state government’s response and asked why Odisha’s image is being tarnished and whether the government and police administration have become helpless in ensuring the safety of citizens.
“Isn’t ensuring everyone’s safety the responsibility of this government?” he asked, and criticised the government’s “numbness and silence,” which he alleged encourages such crimes.
Patnaik urged the government to immediately implement the strictest possible measures to ensure the safety of women and restore law and order in the state.
Other BJD leaders, including MP Sulata Deo and senior general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar, at a press conference said, “This is the first of its kind in the state. A woman was never disrobed during mob violence. The state government must publish a white paper on the steps taken for women’s safety.”
Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das said, “There is no break on the rising crimes against women in BJP-ruled Odisha. This must end.”
Around 2,000 activists of the Mahila Congress, led by their state president Meenakshi Bahinipati, launched a fast in the city, accusing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the state during the day, of being indifferent to the crimes against women.
“Sexual assaults on women have become a regular phenomenon in Odisha, and the PM remains indifferent to such crimes all along. Disrobing women in public seems to become part of the BJP’s governance style,” claimed Bahinipati.
“The Prime Minister may visit Odisha 100 times, but he is indifferent to crimes against women and the dignity of mothers and daughters,” said Congress president Bhakta Charan Das, who also joined the protest.
Rejecting the opposition allegation, BJP MP Pratap Sarangi said that the police have taken prompt action in this incident, “unlike the previous government”.
“All the guilty persons will be arrested and punished,” said Sarangi, a former union minister.
Balaram Bagh, a driver by profession, who came to the rescue of the victim woman and covered her with his T-shirt, said that he tried his level best to stop the people, but none paid any heed to him.
“I risked my life, entered into the melee and rescued the woman and sent her and the male victim to a hospital,” Balaram said.
He said that the mob was too violent and not in a state to understand anything.
They even chased the police van, which was carrying the woman and her male companion.
PTI