DGP orders Crime Branch probe into girl’s rape

Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Director general of police (DGP) Abhay on Tuesday ordered a state

Crime Branch

probe into the alleged gang-rape of a minor girl in a police station in Sundargarh district. The DGP said the Crime Branch team will take over the investigation from local police.

The Crime Branch inquiry follows public outcry over the gang-rape charge against the police and their subsequent attempt to hush up the matter.

“Our team of four officers, headed by a lady deputy superintendent of police, who is the investigating officer, has already started the probe. A superintendent of police from the Crime Branch has also gone there to monitor the investigation,” additional director general of police (Crime Branch) Soumendra Priyadarshi said.

Six persons, including two police personnel – Anand Chandra Majhi, the former inspector in-charge of Biramitrapur police station and his colleague – have been accused of raping a 13-year-old tribal girl inside the police station for several weeks and forcing her to go for abortion.

The matter came to the light when the child, who was seen crying outside the police station a few days back, was rescued by a local NGO and handed over to the child welfare committee (CWC) in Sundargarh. The girl told the CWC that she had come to Biramitrapur to attend a local fair some days before the lockdown in March.

While she was waiting to catch an auto-rickshaw to return home, a patrolling van belonging to Biramitrapur police spotted her and took her to the police station where Majhi allegedly raped her. She alleged that the local police dropped her in her village.

But Majhi would often call her to the police station and sexually assault her. The girl said another policeman (whose identity is yet to be ascertained) assisted the former IIC in the alleged offence for several weeks. She also alleged that her step father, two other locals and a doctor forced her to go for abortion after she became pregnant.

On Friday, Majhi was placed under suspension following a hue and cry. No arrest has been made so far in the case.

Majhi was unavailable for comment. Police sources said three of the accused are on the run. Meanwhile, former Biramitrapur MLA and Congress leader George Tirkey has threatened a bandh on Thursday if the culprits are not arrested soon.

EoM