A day after a man and his wife attempted self-immolation in front of State Assembly, the Government on Wednesday directed Crime Branch police to probe abduction and killing of their five-year-old daughter Pari.
The Crime Branch would undertake a proper investigation into matter and take appropriate action as per law, said Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra while making a statement onissue in Assembly. On police action taken so far in Nayagarh district, where incident had taken place, Minister said that as many as 34 suspects have been questioned while four persons underwent polygraph tests at the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Bhubaneswar in connection with the case. A case was registered at Nayagarh Sadar police station on July 14. Police stations across State were informed after girl had gone missing and her body was subsequently recovered, Mishra said.
A sniffer dog was engaged and a scientific team was put into service to collect evidence relating to the incident, the Minister said. The postmortem of the victim's body by doctors of the SCB Medical College Hospital revealed. “Bone and soft tissue produced is of human origin and appears to of a female child of age 5-6 years.
Opinion about sexual abuse and cause of death cannot be determined at this stage of decomposition with available body parts," he said. Opposition BJP and Congress members, however, did not agree to Crime Branch probe into case. "The Minister (apparently meaning Arun Sahoo who is Nayagarh MLA) has been threatening (concened) Laxmipur Sarpanch. Who is Babuli Nayak (the prime accused in case)? We do not feel investigation by the Crime Branch will be impartial," said Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik of BJP.
Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said, "The Crime Branch probe will be biased as it (the investigating agency) uses to support Government. Notably, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro had on Tuesday asked Minister to inform House about circumstances under which girl’s parents made self-immolation attempt near Assembly and murder of girl.
The Speaker's direction came following demands by BJP and Congress members for a Government statement on inability of police to nab culprits involved in kidnap and killing of the girl in July.