The District (Special) Judge Court on Wednesday rejected the bail petitions of four persons, including three officials and a woman, for their alleged involvement in selling a child of a Dalit minor girl inmate of Lutheran Mahila Samiti in Patalipanka under Mahakalapada block.
They were identified as Purna Chandra Mallick, who worked at District Child Protection Unit, Bibekananda Atabudhi, legal advisor, Rabindra Mahalik, a former employee of Letheran’s special adoption agency and Rina alias Renubala Panda, house mother of Lutheran and remanded to jail custody by the court.
Earlier, the four accused had filed anticipatory bail from the Orissa High Court, but the court had rejected their petitions and directed them to appear before the District Judge Court.
It may be noted here that in 2017, a Dalit minor girl was sexually exploited continuously in the child care home and rendered an unwed mother as she delivered a girl child. But after 15 days of the girl’s birth, the staffers of the CCI by making an unholy nexus with the officials allegedly sold the child by informing the Dalit minor girl that they were taking their girl for providing treatment at a hospital.
The matter was later probed by the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR), the CWC and the District Social Security Officer.