ROURKELA: A 15-year-old missing schoolgirl, who was rescued from a forest near Bisra’s Jamberna village in a critical condition due to suspected poisoning, died on Thursday night.
The deceased was a resident of Jamberna village and Class X student of the local school. Police said the girl was reported to be missing on Thursday morning.
IIC of Bisra police station Manoranjan Kumbhar said later in the day, the missing girl was found by villagers in the nearby forest. On being informed, police rushed to the scene for investigation. A forensic team and dog squad also inspected the spot on Friday during seizure of the body.
Kumbhar said a poison bottle was recovered from the spot. Doctors have also indicated poisoning as the cause of death. Circumstances leading to the incident and reasons behind the girl consuming poison are being investigated, he added.
However, the girl’s aunt suspected rape and forcible poisoning. She said her niece went to school in the morning but did not return home. A missing report was filed in Bisra police station and family members launched a frantic search for the girl. In the meantime, some villagers traced her bicycle at the house of a villager at Khertola. The bicycle was reportedly found abandoned near the forest. Subsequently, villagers went inside the forest and rescued the girl in a critical condition.
The aunt further said she was rushed to Bisra community health centre and later shifted to Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH). As her condition was deteriorating, she was taken to Hi-Tech medical college and hospital for ICU care. The woman claimed the Hi-Tech doctors told the girl’s family members that she might have been raped and sent them to the Apollo Hospital on the plea of unavailability of specialists immediately. Subsequently, the Apollo Hospital and Ispat General Hospital also refused admission on the pretext of not having vacant ICU beds, she alleged.
The woman said they brought the girl back to the RGH where she was pronounced dead. “Had my niece received urgent medical care, she could have been saved,” she rued.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani insisted that there was no sexual assault. Preliminary investigation suggests that the girl took her own life by consuming poison inside the forest. A team of doctors conducted the autopsy on Friday.
Initially, a case was registered for kidnapping under section 137 (2) of BNS. After the girl’s death, it was converted to an unnatural death case.