india

Updated: Nov 18, 2019 23:00 IST

A division bench of the Orissa High Court comprising chief justice K Javeri and justice KR Mohapatra ordered a court-monitored SIT probe into the alleged rape of a minor Dalit girl by members of the paramilitary force. Three DIG-ranked officers will lead the SIT.

A minor Dalit girl in Koraput district was allegedly gang-raped by troopers of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) in October 2017 in a forest, following which she committed suicide in January 2018. The girl who was a ninth standard student in a local school, had alleged in her complaint that she had gone to the market in Kunduli area of Koraput district to get her biometrics recorded for her Aadhaar card and was returning to her village when four jawans intercepted her and sexually assaulted her in a jungle nearby.

Hearing into two writ petitions seeking a CBI probe into the case, the division bench of Orissa High Court in August this year had asked the Criminal Investigations Department of the state government to wrap up its probe in the next one month. The HC said if CID failed to complete the probe, then it would be forced to order a probe by a special investigation team comprising police officials from central and state agency.

In August this year, a judicial probe undertaken by Koraput district and sessions judge into the incident, however, said that there was no medical evidence of the girl being raped and wondered why a minor girl at the cost of her modesty made false accusations and gave out a false story regarding the sexual assault on her.