Cuttack: Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed the arrest of all the accused in the Pipili gang rape of a dalit girl within seven days and ordered the chief medical officer (CMO) of Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar to submit a detailed report about her health status.
The HC division Bench headed by Chief Justice V Gopala
Gowda ordered the superintendent of police of Puri to
personally monitor the case and submit the action taken report
to the court within seven days after apprehending all the
accused persons in the case.
The division bench, which was hearing a PIL filed by
civil rights activist and advocate Prabir Das, took strong
exception to the police inaction in the case and directed the
superintendent of police of Puri to put an officer in the rank
of deputy superintendent of police to investigate into the
case.
It ordered the hospital CMO to submit the report by
tomorrow stating as to whether the 19-year-old dalit girl, in
coma since the incident in Novemeber last year, is responding
to the treatment and if she needs to be shifted to a better
facility.
The Bench directed Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of
police to immediately post a lady constable near the victim's
hospital bed to guard her. It also asked the police to step
up surveillance in and around Capital Hospital to prevent the
accused persons from interfering in the security and
treatment of the victim.
The directions were given when the petitioner brought
it the notice of the Chief Justice that the accused persons in
the case are trying to threaten the victim's family, while
leaders of a particular political party were trying to
intimidate and coerce them.
The case would be heard again tomorrow to consider the
report.
The petitioner urged the court to ensure that the
victim, who is from a dalit BPL family, is given proper
medical treatment by the state government free of cost as she
was now in coma since the incident in November last year.
The petitioner has also sought rehabilitation of the
victim and stringent action against the perpetrators of the
crime.
Meanwhile, the state government has ordered a crime
branch enquiry into the incident after the local police
registered a case under various sections of the IPC along with
sections under SC and ST Act against all the four persons
named in the FIR.
Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj said a
five-member team of the crime branch is already on the job and
said the accused would be dealt severely.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 23:45