Odisha: Alleged Gang Rape Victim Commits Suicide Over Delay In Investigation
Courtesy: India Today
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A gangrape victim committed suicide in Odisha on January 22. She was raped in October 2017 allegedly by army personnel, yet no action has been taken against the accused. Frustrated with the police inaction, she decided to end her life.

The minor Dalit girl had alleged she was gang-raped by four armed jawans. She had even told newsmen that she was under pressure from the police to withdraw the case and even was offered money by a senior police officer to change her statement, as reported by Countercurrents.

The case became a sensational issue in Odisha with the government declaring it as a Red Flag case with a Crime Branch Inquiry and later a judicial inquiry by a sitting District Judge.

Both BJP and the Congress protested against the suicide and condemned the Odisha government for its inaction.


Injustice

More often than not, when incidents of sexual violence by police officers or army personnel come to the fore, there is denial and delay in the investigation.

After she reported the incident of rape, the Human Rights Cell of the government on November 7 said that there was no physical evidence of rape. She subsequently moved the district child welfare committee (CWC). Every time journalists came to visit her, she expressed her frustration over the fact that nobody believed her.

There was no action taken to identify the culprits from her description or the fact that the accused were in uniform. Instead, the police picked up four boys from the same village for interrogation who were beaten up too. The police had also forcefully taken one of them for a lie detection test to an undisclosed location in Bhubaneswar, according to Countercurrents.

The police even blamed the Maoists in their initial statements. In December, the girl came out in public stating that senior police officers have bribed her to withdraw the charges. That was her last statement. Now her suicide note is with the police.

The girl wanted to study, but couldn’t because of the incident’s trauma and the subsequent media attention. The Logical Indian sympathises with her family and hopes that justice is served and the accused are caught.

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Editor : Poorbita Bagchi

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