CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has declined to proceed with adjudication of a PIL seeking a CBI probe into the murder of a five-year-old girl in Nayagarh district eight months ago. The case had triggered statewide outrage after the minor girl’s parents protesting against alleged police inaction attempted self-immolation outside Odisha Assembly on November 24, 2020. Padmalaya Mohapatra, a Cuttack-based lawyer, had filed the petition in November 25, 2020.
While disposing of the petition on Thursday, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said, “Considering that the mother of the victim has herself filed a separate writ petition in the Supreme Court, which is pending, this Court does not consider it appropriate to continue to entertain another petition on the same issue in parallel proceedings before this Court in the present PIL, which has been filed by an advocate”. When the matter came up on Thursday, the Court was informed that a minor boy was arrested in this connection.