Bhubaneswar: After much delay, the Odisha Government tabled the action taken report of the sensational Kundali gangrape case in the State Assembly.
As per the statement laid, the government has accepted two recommendations of the commission of inquiry, which had probed the alleged incident of kidnapping, sexual assault and suicide of a minor under Pottangi police station limit in Koraput district.
They are…
1. The state police have been requested to issue instructions to all the investigating agencies to take all necessary steps during the investigation to hide the identity of the victim.
2. Instructions have been issued to all concerned that any district or state authority should not make the progress of the investigation public in front of media before the investigation is over.
The other recommendation, to remove the statue of the victim from Kundali Chowk has, however, not been accepted by the Government.
The action taken report submitted in the State Assembly comes against the backdrop of the Orissa High Court on Friday, directing the state government to ensure completion of the investigation into the rape case within four weeks. The court also suggested constituting a special investigation team if the inquiry report is not satisfactory.
The state government had set up a commission of inquiry headed by the District Judge, Koraput. The commission had submitted its report to the Government on September 20, 2018.
The statement said that instructions were issued to concerned quarters on July 27, 2019, for implementation of the two recommendations.
As to why the report was placed in the State Assembly after considerable delay, the government blamed it on processing and examining the report at various stages and on account of printing and action taken.
As per the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, any report of the commission of inquiry along with the action taken report has to be placed before the State Assembly within six months of presentation.
The Kundali rape case had triggered a massive uproar across the state, especially after the victim committed suicide. The incident happened on October 10, 2017, when the victim, a Class IX student of Government Welfare School at Sorisapadar, while returning from the Kundali market was allegedly gang raped by four ‘uniformed personnel’ in Lanjiguda forest. She committed suicide at her village Masaguda on January 22, 2018.
