The report of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry, headed by retired judge of Orissa High Court Justice PK Mohanty into the sensational Pipili gangrape and murder case, was submitted to the State Government on Wednesday. The commission’s secretary handed over the report to the Home Secretary in Bhubaneswar.

Bebina Behera, a 19-year-old dalit girl of Arjungada village of Pipili in Puri district was raped by four youths on November 29, 2011 and then strangulated, following which the girl slipped into a coma. The girl could not recover from the comatose and died on June 20, 2012 while undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital.

In view of the huge public outcry as the incident had massive political connotation, the Government was forced order the judicial probe into the incident in January 2012 and the commission was asked to submit its report within three months. Among other terms of references, the commission was asked to suggest measures to check such incidents in future.

The commission had received less than hundred affidavits, and it had issued notices to 11 others, including Pipili MlA and Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy under Section 8-B of the Commission of Enquiry Act. While Maharathy did not appear, the commission recorded statements of only 55 witnesses in 111 sittings and submitted its report after more than four years.

Surprisingly, when over a hundred organisations, including political parties and social and civil activists, had hit the roads demanding a proper probe and exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime, not a single activist from these so-called elite sections came forward to help the commission in its bid to find the truth. What baffled many was that even the wife of the Pipili BJD MlA, who had filed a damage suit in a Puri court pertaining to certain newspaper reports against her husband on issue, also did not feel it necessary to put forth her viewpoint before the commission.