Puri: Protesting against the incident of a minor being gangraped in a cop’s quarter in Puri, hundreds of Congressmen staged protest and tried to gherao the CM’s residence in Bhubaneswar Monday night.
Demanding compensation for the victim and action against the accused, hundreds of Congress activists marched towards Naveen Niwas to gherao the CM’s residence at about 11pm Monday. However, they were stopped midway by the security personnel.
Similarly, BJP Mahila Morcha, women’s wing of BJP gheraoed Kumbharpada police station and staged a road blockade. Later local people joined them, leading to a melee between the cops and agitating people.
Later the road blockade was withdrawn following the intervention of top police officials.
Meanwhile, demanding stringent action against the accused and Rs 10 lakh compensation for the victim, right activist Jayant Kumar Dash has filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission.
Police said the woman lodged a complaint, saying a man, who identified himself as a policeman, offered her a lift in his car while she was waiting at a bus stand in Nimapara town.
“I was on my way from Bhubaneswar to my village at Kakatpur. I believed him and accepted the lift,” the woman told reporters outside Kumbharpada police station where she filed her complaint.
She found three other men in the car after she got into it, the woman said. “Instead of taking me towards Kakatpur, they took me to Puri town. The four took me to a house where two of them raped me while two others left after closing the door from outside,” the victim claimed. The house was a police quarter near Jhadeswari Club in Puri town.
The victim, during the sexual assault, could grab the wallet of one of the accused and the photo-identity card and Aadhaar card of his were recovered from it, the police said. So far, the police identified one of the accused whose cards were found. He is a police constable and has been arrested and suspended, a police officer said.
After rape, the accused bolted the door from outside while the main accused was lying on bed in the room. The girl after gaining strength tried to open the door but failed. She then asked a passersby, requesting him to open the door from outside. The stranger opened the door bolt. The victim took the wallet of Jitendra Sethi, the main accsued, and walked to Kumbharpada PS where she was allegedly harassed by a lady ASI. The lady cop was reluctant to entertain her complaint as policemen were involved in the case.
Later, IIC of Kumbharpara accepted her complaint and, he along with a police team, rushed to Sethi’s quarter and nabbed him while he was sleeping under the influence of alcohol.
Sethi had been involved in a case where he had tried to set ablaze a woman February 16, 2019 and was suspended.
Notably, during the car festival last year, a minor of Keonjhar district was raped inside a bus and this incident grabbed headlines and created ripples across the nation at that time.
PNN