Are political leaders above law or do they enjoy immunity from coming under criminal investigationsIJ These key questions emerged on Monday at the Justice PK Mohanty Commission of Inquiry, which is probing into the sensational Pipili gangrape and murder case. While a Cabinet Minister was forced to resign over the issue and the FIR in the case clearly alleged that due to political pressure the police and doctors neglected the rape victim yet the Crime Branch police did not feel it necessary to examine a single political leader before filing the charge-sheets in the case.
Facing cross-examinations, the IO in the case, a DSP-rank officer, Sethy told the commission that not a single political leader was drawn into the purview of the police investigation, informed counsel of the victim’s family Nishikant Mishra..
Mishra also wondered as to why the police did not investigate into the rape allegations when teams of doctors from the local Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) to the AIIMS, New Delhi did not give any definite opinion ruling out sexual assault on the victim.
It may be recalled that while the FIR clearly mentioned that the 19-year-old victim was retrieved from a deserted place in a seminude state indicating that the girl might have been subjected to sexual assault, the investigating police never during the investigation made any requisition to the doctors to ascertain whether the victim was raped or not.
Mishra, whose cross-examination of the IO remained inconclusive, said the Crime Branch made a superficial investigation into the case without giving any importance to the allegations made in the FIR. Sethy’s cross-examination would resume on Tuesday, sources said.