As expected, clear contradictions appeared between the statements given by the Pipili gang-rape and murder case investigation officer (IO) and his affidavits submitted before the Justice PK Mohanty Commission of Inquiry, which is probing into the sensational case.
During cross-examination of IO RC Sethy, a DSP-rank officer of Crime Branch police on Friday, it was revealed that the Crime Branch did not feel it necessary to examine the first informant of the case, a tractor driver of the locality who first told the villagers on the day of the incident that a girl was lying seminude at a deserted place near a riverbank.
When asked by the counsel of the victim’s family Akshay Nanda as to why the Crime Branch did not examine the tractor driver, the IO said the complainant did not produce the tractor driver before the police. Similarly, the IO also during the cross-examination said he had not visited even once Ghatikia village where the victim was staying after she was denied treatment at the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Moreover, the Crime Branch also did not examine Dr JB Patnaik of the Capital Hospital, who first received the patient in the hospital and did not follow the guidelines required to treat medico-legal cases. Even Dr Patnaik’s name doesn’t appear in any of the four charge-sheets the Crime Branch has filed till date in the case.
The IO was also cross-examined by the counsel of National SC and ST Commission Haladhar Sethy. Further cross examinations of the IO will be held on June 10 during which three more counsels will quiz him.