Uproar in Odisha assembly, opposition seeks apology from CM over rape

Bhubaneswar, Aug 21: Odisha Assembly today witnessed pandemonium and two adjournments over the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in a slum here with opposition Congress and BJP members demanding an apology and statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The issue was raised by senior BJP MLA and party's state president K V Singhdeo during zero hour. While Singhdeo and other party MLAs sat on dharna in the well of the house, opposition Congress members attempted to climb the speaker's podium leading to adjournments of the house twice.

Alleging that the government was trying to hush up the case, Singhdeo said the police hurriedly conducted postmortem on the body of the minor girl last night without permission of her parents.

"Let the Chief Minister clarify as to why the postmortem was conducted after evening. The government has tried to silence the victims parents by giving Rs 20,000," the BJP leader alleged.

While Singhdeo said he was ashamed over the government's failure to provide protection to women and girls, particularly minor girls, senior Congress MLA Anup Sai demanded unconditional apology from the Chief Minister.

"There is no point in keeping 50 per cent reservation for women in urban and panchayat elections when the government had totally failed to give security to girls," Sai said, adding that the brutal rape and murder of a minor girl took place under the nose of the administration in the state capital.

The Congress members demanded a condolence motion in the house for those killed after being raped. Leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh of Congress demanded apology from the Chief Minister while party MLA Ramachandra Kadam pulled away the pen-stand from speaker's podium when the deputy speaker was in chair.

Senior BJD member and former minister Pradeep Maharathy said the treasury bench was equally worried over the rape and murder of the minor girl in the state capital. "We demand stringent laws for punishing the culprits involved in such henious crime," Maharathy said.

The din ended after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kalpataru Das assured the members that the Chief Minister would give a statement in the house.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the Capital Hospital premises here last night when family members of the rape and murder victim tried to forcefully take back the body before post-mortem.

Family members of the deceased and hundreds of residents of Salia Sahi slum, where the victim was staying, entered the post-mortem building of the hospital and vandalised the place when their attempt to snatch the body failed due to the presence of police.

DCP Nitinjeet Singh said the police have already arrested the main accused in the rape and murder case. The girl was allegedly raped and killed by a man at Saliasahi slum in the city yesterday.

PTI