College girl charred to death in Orphanage

Sambalpur, Aug 26 (UNI) Police today identified the girl, charred to death inside a missionary hostel during the VHP-sponsored 12-hour dawn-to dusk bandh protesting the killing of senior VHP leader Swami Laxmananada Saraswati The situation in the small town of Padmapur under Bargarh district, which witnessed the ugly scene, was gradually improving with deployment of more forces in all sensitive places and inside the town.

During the bandh on Monday a small village Khuntpali adjacent to the town witnessed ghastly incident when bandh activists set fire to a missionary hostel leading to the death of a poor girl working as a caretaker of the hostel.

The girl, police said, had been identified as Rajani Majhi, who belonged to a poor family of Jagdalpur under Jharbandh block.

Besides working as a care taker in the hostel, she was pursuing her +3 education in local Padmapur college, police said.

Meanwhile, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) of northern division Jamil Ahammad Khan, DIG Y B Khurania, Baragarh Collector Suresh Chandra Padhi and Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Biswal visited the spot today and directed police to initiate action against the culprits.

Two Additional District Magistrates (ADMs) were now camping at Padmapur and Sohela to maintain law and order. Strict vigilance was being kept on sensitive places and on people creating such problems.

The SP said so far three people had been arrested at Sohela and some vehicles seized in connection with the crime. Apart from Khuntpal, the bandh organisers attacked on churches at Madhupur, Diptipur, Chichinda, Tungibandhli, Ghaghadimal and other places.

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