Kendrapara: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought an Action Taken Report (ATR) (ATR) from the Superintendent of Police and the District Collector of Nabarangpur district over the kidnap, gangrape and murder of a minor tribal girl December 14, 2019.
Acting upon a petition by civil rights lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the rights body sought a detailed report from the authorities within four weeks.
A 16-year-old tribal girl, who had gone missing, was found murdered after she was allegedly gang-raped in Gumundoli village under the jurisdiction of Kosagumuda police station in Nabarangpur district. The incident showed that the law and order situation had collapsed in the state with an alarming spurt in cases of rape and murder of females, Tripathy contended.
At around 8 pm December 13, 2019, the girl had gone out of her house to attend nature’s call since the family does not have a toilet. When she did not return till late night, her parents started searching for her and failed to trace her. The next day morning, some villagers found the girl’s body and informed her family and police. Multiple injury marks were found on her body. Police found two pairs of jeans trousers from the spot. The girl was a Class X dropout and her father and sister work as daily labourers.
Nirbhaya guidelines have not been followed by the state, the petition pointed out. This is a classic case of the failure of the entire state machinery and the state police. Negligence by the government to follow Nirbhaya guidelines and ensure welfare schemes of the government are carried out in villages pose serious questions of human rights, Tripathy alleged.
He requested the national rights watchdog to get the case independently probed by a DG level officer and direct DGP, Odisha and secretary, ministry of women and child development to act against the errant officials.
PNN