BJP leader cum Orissa High Court lawyer Srikant Padhi met Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi on January 2 to take up a rape and murder case involving a Odia minor girl of a migrant family from Ganjam in a first track court under Pocso Act and the latter has assured in the positive.
Deceased Sapna Swain (7), daughter of Siva Prasad Swain, was missing from her house on December 7. Her body was found in a bag from a neighbour's house during a police search on December 8 night in Chowk Bajar Police Station area in Surat. The police arrested accused Mukesh, a hardcore criminal, the next day. Mukesh was working as a welder in a local machinery factory and was known to the victim's family.
The victim was the youngest among four siblings and her parents had migrated to Surat 14 years back to work in a textile industry. The parents of the victim and members of the Odia Samaj in Surat have demanded a death sentence for the accused.