BHUBANESWAR: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has decided to depute a special team to probe the gangrape of a 15-year-old girl student of Kunduli in Odisha’s Koraput district and subsequent suicide of the victim.
The apex human rights body has directed its deputy general (Investigation Division) to constitute a team of investigators for spot inquiry of the incident immediately and submit a report in next 15 days.
Acting on a petition filed by rights activist and lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the Commission has also asked Additional deputy general of police (Human Rights Protection Cell) to submit a report explaining the circumstances under which the victim ended her life.
The ADG (HRPC) has been instructed to furnish all relevant documents including the statement of the victim, medical reports, treatment record, details of counselling besides the order of Orissa High Court on the matter if any, within six weeks.
The Class-IX student had lodged a complaint with the local police alleging that she was gangraped by four security force personnel in combat uniform while she was on her way home from a nearby Kunduli market, where she had gone to get her passport photo on October 10, last year.
Earlier the Crime Branch of Police, which is investigating the matter, had submitted a report before the NHRC denying the allegations of the victim. The CB in its report had cited it a ‘failed love affair’.
Challenging the finding of the Crime Branch, Tripathy had sought a fair probe of the incident with all legal actions besides adequate compensation for the victim’s family.
Meanwhile, DGP R P Sharma has directed the Crime Branch to get the exhibits collected from the victim re-examined from Kolkata-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).
The direction from the DGP came in the wake of a controversy over the inconsistencies between the intermediate inter-divisional draft report and the final test report of State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL).