The National Commission for Women (NCW), which had constituted an Inquiry Committee on April 26 last to probe the mysterious death of Ayush doctor Madhabilata Pradhan, recommended the State Government to hand over the investigation to the CBI for uninfluenced, fair and impartial inquiry.
The commission in its report suggested that the State Government should provide police protection to the family members of the deceased. It also suggested that the special needs of women working single are looked into on priority basis and they are posted as far as possible close to their residences.
The panel found fault with the conduct of postmortem and shoddy probe by police and the Government Railway Police (GRP) in the case. The NCW pointed out the involvement of Brahmagiri MlA and deputy chief whip of the ruling party Sanjay Dasburma in the death case.
According to the report, the deceased was working in a post which was non-transferable, but the MlA had written a letter to the Puri CDMO recommending transfer of another doctor in her post and again the law Maker had written another letter recommending she should not be disturbed. The commission smelt a rat in the two letters with conflicting purposes.
The commission expressed grave concern over the investigation process by the Crime Branch. The report said, “The investigation by the police authorities is not in the proper direction and in order to do complete justice in the case, it would be prudent and advisable to transfer the investigation to an independent agency like the CBI.”
Notably, the NCW had constituted the Inquiry Committee to probe the case on April 26, 2013. The committee had started its inquiry on May 2 last.