A 14-year-old blind and deaf girl was gang-raped and murdered by the culprits on Wednesday night and her body was found in a cashew forest near Baidas Nagar alongside the Puri-Konark marine drive road on Thursday.
The incident triggered tension in the area with hundreds of angry villagers staging road blockade demanding arrest of the accused persons and financial assistance to the victim’s poor family.
According to reports, the incident happened at Tala Beldal village under the Sadar police station limits on Wednesday midnight. While the girl was sleeping with her family in their thatched house, the miscreants broke open the door and kidnapped her. They took the girl to the nearby forest and killed her after committing rape.
According to the girl’s father Guna Patra, at midnight he heard some noise and barking of street dogs. He found the door open and girl missing. The family members raised an alarm. The neighbours came and searched for the girl but could not find her. Today, at about 10 in the morning the girl’s body was found in a cashew forest alongside the Puri-Konark marine drive road.
As the irate villagers staged the roadblock, traffic came to a grinding halt for hours and was continuing till late in the evening.
Debasish Rath of NGO Childline said he was shocked on hearing the incident. Recalling the girl’s past, he said, “Since her parents are very poor and were unable to meet her treatment expenses we had taken her to a super-specialty hospital where doctors found that she had lost her vision because of a growing tumour in her brain. The tumour was removed by operation and she was slowly recovering.” The Childline spent over a lakh of rupees for her treatment, said the deceased girl’s father.
Inspector of the Sadar police station Susil Kumar Mishra said that involvement of more than two persons was suspected. A scientific team and forensic experts were pressed into service to track the culprits. Puri Superintendent of Police Anup Sahu too visited the spot and assured that culprits would be arrested soon.