Judicial probe report on Pipili rape/murder case given to govt

Cuttack, Mar 31: The report of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry, headed by retired High Court judge Justice P K Mohanty, into the sensational Pipili gang rape and murder case, was submitted to the Odisha government today.

The Commission Secretary submitted the report to the state home secretary at Bhubaneswar, commission sources said.

A 19-year-old dalit girl of Arjungada village of Pipili in Puri district was allegedly raped by four youths on November 29, 2011 and was brutally strangulated following which the girl had slipped into coma.

She could not recover from the comatose state and died on June 20, 2012 while undergoing treatment at SCB medical college and hospital here.

However, bowing to huge public outcry as the case had political connotations, the state government had ordered judicial probe into the incident in January 2012 and the Commission was asked to submit its report within three months.

The Commission had received less than hundred affidavits and it had issued notices to 11 others, including Pipili BJD legislator and the then state agriculture minister Pradip Maharathy under section 8-B of Commission of Enquiry Act.

While Maharathy did not appear, the Commission recorded statements of only 55 witnesses in 111 sittings and submitted its report more than four years after the incident.

PTI