BHUBANESWAR: A local court on Thursday acquitted two persons who were facing trial in connection with a gang-rape case registered against them in 2013. The two, Bikash Sethi and his brother-in-law Ranjan Sethi, were arrested in 2013 for allegedly raping an engineering student in Chandaka in 2013 July.
The main accused, Jitendra Kumar Biswal, had committed suicide inside Special Jharpada Jail on May 11 night, 2018 allegedly due to the delay in trial. “Additional Sessions Judge Court acquitted Bikash and Ranjan due to lack of evidence. Besides this, the medical report of the girl also ruled out rape,” the lawyer of the accused Chita Ranjan Das said. Das was also the lawyer of Jitendra.
Jitendra, who was 35-year-old, committed suicide by hanging from an iron rod inside the bathroom of Ward no 11 by using his towel. A court had awarded seven years imprisonment to Jitendra in 2017 but the trial of the case was on. Police had said Jitendra, a native of Kendrapara, had befriended the girl on a social networking site. He had taken the girl to Chandaka in his car where Bikash and Ranjan were already present. The trio had then allegedly gang-raped the girl.