We still feel unsafe: Pipili rape victim's family to NCW

BHUBANESWAR: Notwithstanding the presence of police in the village, family members of the alleged Pipili gang rape victim told the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday that they still don't feel safe at home.
They expressed their feelings to NCW member secretary Anita Agnihotri when she visited the village. The girl's mother narrated the entire sequence of events to Agnihotri and sought protection and justice for her daughter, who, in a coma, is now under treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.
The girl's mother said her daughter was targeted after she decided to pose as a witness in court to the incident of some local anti-social elements molesting her next-door friend in 2008. She said since then the entire family had been receiving 'threats' in some form or the other.
The NCW functionary also visited the paddy field near the minor Dalit girl's house, from where she was rescued on the morning of November 28 in an unconscious and half-naked state.
Agnihotri, who was in the village for about 30 minutes, later visited the Pipili police station and held talks with the new district SP, who reportedly told her that police had so far not received any complaint from the girl's family of any threat to their life or any other harassment being meted out to them. Sources said, Agnihotri would submit her report in about 10 days.
Meanwhile, the Odisha State Commission for Women (OSCW) has also submitted a report to the chief minister on the Pipili incident, highlighting the sequence of events. The OSCW in its report expressed surprise at how doctors, both at the Capital hospital and at the SCB, did not inform police even after detecting "injury caused on the neck of the victim due to partial hanging". "As per law, if any information is received by doctors regarding partial hanging, it is their duty to inform the concerned police station immediately. But in this case the doctor has not done this. Had it been informed by the doctors to the police station on November 29, 2011, I think police would have initiated its own action," the commission said.
It suggested the government to initiate steps against the doctors for their "negligence". The commission also suggested action against doctors of SCB for "discharging the victim on December 14, 2011 when she was not cured and rather her condition was serious". The report said had "proper steps" been taken by the doctors, "the health of the victim would not have deteriorated".