Minor Dalit girl gangraped and burnt to death:Prime accused held
Dhenakanal, Mar 14: Police today arrested the prime accused in the gangrape and murder of a minor dalit girl in Mathaatentulia village under Gandia police station in Dhenkanal district on the late night of March 12 last.
Dhenakanal Superintendent of Police Manaranjan Mohanty today said one Shibaji Nayak had been arrested and two others involved in the ghastly crime will be nabbed soon.
The minor girl was sleeping with her grandmother when three miscreants, including Shibaji Nayak, barged into their house taking advantage of the absence of the girl's parents, who were out of the village to attend a marriage ceremony.
The three youths, police said, forcibly took the minor girl from the house and gangraped her. They then locked the house from outside and set it on fire.
The old grandmother alerted the villagers when she noticed the fire engulfing the house but by the time the villagers and the fire brigade personnel reached the spot, the victim was completely charred to death.
This gruesome incident sent shock waves in the village and police acting on the FIR lodged by the father of the victim nabbed the prime accused, while the two others involved in the incident managed to flee the village.
According to police, the prime accused had earlier proposed to marry the girl but the parents had opposed it. Since then he had been threatening the family members to take revenge for refusing his proposal.
The prime accused took the advantage of the absence of the parents in the house. When the girl and her grandmother went to bed after taking their dinner, Shibaji entered the house late in the night and forcibly took away the minor girl and raped her.
The accused then decided to destroy the evidence and fearing that the girl will disclose his name, locked her inside the house and then set the house on fire.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajaya Prakash Swain said one Sharat Nayak of the nearby village was also present with Shibaji but he later managed to escape from the scene.
Shivaji was detained yesterday by police and during interrogation he confessed of commiting the crime and admitted that he set the house on fire to destroy the evidence.
The issue was raised in the ongoing budget session of the Odisha Assembly today by Gandia MLA Naveen Nanda, who demanded that strong action should be taken against all the accused involved in the heinous crime.