Bhubaneswar: Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) Thursday criticised Bargarh SP for defying its March 15, 2019 order in connection with a case wherein three tribal women were allegedly gangraped and two of them were later murdered in Rupapalli village under Bhiden police limits of Bargarh district.
The commission expressed frustration over the delay in probe and said “The SP is yet to conduct an investigation even though five months have passed since a direction on this context was issued. The SP, possibly, is not worried about the incident despite its gravity.”
OHRC subsequently has asked northern range DIG to take over the case.
According to the complaint lodged with the commission, the incident had taken place September 23, 2016 wherein some of the police officials of Bhiden police station forcefully took three women of an ostracised family away and had raped them. Later, they handed these women to the villagers who in turn took them to a forest and raped them repeatedly for another 10 days.
While one of the three victims managed to escape and reported the incident, two others were murdered by the villagers, the complaint noted.
The woman who managed to escape had informed about the incident to her elder brother who lodged a written complaint with the cops May 6, 2017. He, however, was murdered July 19, 2017. In her complaint to the commission, the victim woman had mentioned the role of the police and villagers in the incident following which OHRC had asked Bargarh SP for a probe.
Acting on the direction of the commission, the cops had conducted a probe and had submitted a report in this case that claimed that the husband of the woman was attacked by the villagers July 19, 2017. He has been missing since, police said. Besides, the complainant was not present either at her residence and or at her in-law’s place when the investigating team approached to speak to her, police had told OHRC.
Miffed over the response, OHRC said that the cops were not serious about finding the victim – especially when she was able to come to Bhubaneswar to lodge her complaint. It has asked the local DIG to take over the case.
