The Odisha High Court on Monday issued notices to the State Government seeking its response within two weeks to a PIl filed by a woman police inspector, who is demanding a CBI inquiry into the sexual exploitation, torture and blackmailing inflicted on her by a male police inspector.
Justice SC Parija also asked the State Crime Branch police to file a status report in the court detailing the progress made in the investigation of the case.
The woman cop in her PIl has stated that she had lost complete faith in the police as senior officers are unmoved to her plight for over 12 years. But the Crime Branch swung into action only when she approached the High Court seeking CBI probe.
Maintaining that the accused police inspector Ajay Kumar Swain, who was last working in the Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) in Jagatsinghpur district, is absconding; the Crime Branch had approached a lower court in Baleswar district seeking NBW against the absconding cop. The Baleswar court was approached for a warrant because the cause of action was under its jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Court of Soro has already issued NBW against Swain. Meantime, the Crime Branch police claim that they have already conducted several raids to arrest Swain, but the fugitive cop is still on the run.
The lady police inspector, now posted in Keonjhar district, has alleged that she was sexually harassed and tortured by Swain ever since she joined police services 12 years ago. Although she has been complaining about it to some senior police officers in her district and State, nobody paid any heed to her plight.