BARIPADA: A woman lecturer, who was allegedly raped by one of her relatives, ‘committed suicide’ on Saturday night, a month after police failed to take action against the accused. The incident prompted Mayrubhanj SP Parmar Smit Parshottamdas to suspend an ASI while the Inspector was transferred.
The victim, native of Pandhada under Jharpokharia police limits, had gone to the house of her brother and sister-in-law to celebrate Kali Puja on October 26 when she was allegedly raped by her sister-in-law’s brother Soumya Ranjan Sahu. When she confided in her sister-in-law, the latter forced her not to disclose the matter to anyone.
As the victim remained silent, the accused sent her obscene photographs to her mobile phone next day and threatened that if she disclosed the matter to anyone, he would upload the pictures on social media. The woman then lodged an FIR with Jharpokharia police limits on October 30.
Basing on the FIR, police registered a case under Sections 376 and 506 of IPC and a medical test was conducted on the victim at PRM Medical College and Hospital here. Her statement too was recorded by the police. However, no action was taken on the case for a month.
On Saturday night, the lecturer was found hanging in her room in the women’s hostel of the college. Her father said, a suicide note was found from his daughter’s room.
As the incident led to outrage, the victim’s father along with some students of the college did not allow the body to be taken for post-mortem for around 12 hours. Rairangpur Town IIC Ranjan Kumar Sethi and SDPO Snehasish Sahu rushed to the spot. They pacified the agitators and sent the body for post-mortem.
The SP said, the main accused along with two others -Debabrata Mandal and Sujit Mandal - have been arrested from Dhanmandal in Cuttack district. Debabrata and Sujit apparently threatened the victim.
He said that SI of Jharpokharia police station Prasanta Swain has been suspended for delaying the investigation and IIC Sarat Mahali transferred to the district headquarters."The exact cause of the death can be ascertained after report of post-mortem is received," said the SP.