Thaindian News

Bhubaneswar, Jan 30 (IANS) Several social and political activists Monday staged a demonstration in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged gangrape of a woman in November last year in Puri district.

The activists, comprising legislators of opposition parties and members of the civil society and women organisations, demonstrated in front of the statue of the father of the nation at the Mahatma Gandhi Park here.

The demonstrators said they did not think the victim would get justice through a probe by the crime branch of police and the one-man judicial commission.

“Since powerful persons were involved, the government should order a CBI probe,” Prasanta Patnaik of Odisha Gana Samaj, which organised the demonstration, told IANS.

Patnaik said similar demonstrations were also organised at several places in the state.

The 19-year-old woman was allegedly gangraped Nov 28 by some people near her village Arjunagoda, barely 10 km from the state capital.

Her family alleged that the rapists were the same people who had assaulted her in 2008 and against whom she had put up a determined fight in court in a molestation case.

The incident came to light recently when the girl was denied proper treatment at a hospital and her case was highlighted by reporters.

The incident sparked a political storm, which forced Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy to resign Jan 19 on moral grounds after the opposition and the girl’s family alleged that he protected her attackers.

Police have arrested four people and conducted lie-detector polygraph tests on them.