Rights body raps Bheden cops in gangrape case

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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) recently criticised the police over the misleading inquiry reports presented in the alleged gang-rape of three women by police personnel at Bheden in Bargarh in 2016.
The commission July 22 asked the authorities to entrust some able officer to reinvestigate the matter. The commission asked the police to find out the missing brother-in-law of the petitioner who filed a complaint about the rape.
Earlier, the commission asked the DIG Northern Range and SP of Bargarh to probe the matter. Both the reports concluded that the allegations against the police personnel and villagers were false and scurrilous.
The Bargarh SP in his report told the OHRC that the petitioner, Geeta Mallick, was absent when investigators went to her Rupapalli village to record her statement.
Rubbishing the claims, the rights panel asked the police that if she could appear before it in the state capital, how the police failed to find her.
It also rubbished the conclusion in the report about the complaint being false on grounds of delay in filing the complaint at the Bheden police station.
The OHRC also pointed to the many loopholes in the reports. It questioned that if the rape victims were available to the police why they were not produced in the SDJM court and why their statements were not recorded under Section 164 of CrPC.
The commission also asked who stopped the Bhenden police from sending the rape victim for medical examination. The petitioner said some officials of Bheden police station picked up her and two other women, Rebati Mallick and Jharana Mahananda, from their houses in Rupapali and detained them September 23, 2016 in connection with a clash with another group of the village. Instead of taking them to the police station, the cops took them to the nearby forest and gang-raped them. Later, police handed them over to the opponents of the women who also raped them, the petitioner said.
Geeta managed to escape but Jharana and Rebati could not. After coming out of shock, she revealed the matter to her mother-in-law following which a search was carried out by the family but there was no trace of the missing duo. Later, it was learnt that the duo had been hacked to death after the rape.
Geeta’s brother-in-law Ganesh Mallick later informed the Home Secretary, Collector, DGP and Bargarh SP about the matter May 7, 2016. Ganesh was also attacked by the rival group while returning from the panchayat office along with his friend Khireshwar Bhua July 19, 2016.
Police took the two to the police station from where Khireshwar was taken to hospital due to the injuries he suffered in the attack. But Ganesh went missing after the incident.