By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: Odisha Higher Education and Agriculture Minister Dr Arun Sahoo has appealed to Oppositions Congress and BJP to not politicise the issue and assured that the minor girl’s family will get justice as the Crime Branch has been directed to investigate the matter.Minister Dr Sahoo said, adding that the accused will definitely get exemplary punishment.
The girl child went missing while playing in front of her house on July 14. Later on July 23, her decomposed body was found stuffed in a sack behind a house near a pond. Her parents alleged that Nayak had kidnapped and murdered their daughter.The Sadar police registered a case under Sections 363, 364, 302, and 201 of the IPC on the basis of a complaint lodged by the minor girl’s parents.
Earlier in the day, Opposition BJP and Congress members created ruckus in the State Assembly demanding resignation of Sahoo in connection with the murder of the five-year-old girl Pari of Jadupur village in Nayagarh district. They sloganeered near the Speaker’s podium demanding the minister’s resignation.
The State Government directed the State Crime Branch to probe into the child’s murder. The deceased girl’s father Ashok Sahoo and mother Saudamini on November 24 attempted self-immolation outside the Odisha Legislative Assembly demanding justice for their daughter. Alleging police inaction in the case, the couple accused the Agriculture of shielding Babuli Nayak, the accused in the murder case. They claimed that Nayak is a close aide of the Nayagarh MLA.
Meanwhile, voluntary organisation Bharat Bikash Parishad’s State president Surendra Panigrahi on Thursday filed a Public interest Litigation (PIL) in the Orissa High Court seeking a (Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder of five-year-old Pari of Jadupur village in Nayagarh district.The petitioner also sought a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the deceased’s family. The State Government and the Nayagarh district administration have been made parties in the PIL.
