Naveen Orders Expansion of ToR For Judicial Probe Into Kunduli Incident

Bhubaneswar: Amid the statewide uproar over the suicide of the minor rape victim in Odisha’s Koraput district, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday directed to expand the terms of reference (ToR) for the judicial probe into the incident.

“The circumstances leading to the alleged suicide committed by the minor girl will be added to the existing ToR for the judicial probe,” the directive said.

It may be mentioned that the judicial probe into the incident was notified on December 26 last year.

In the meanwhile, the State Crime Branch, in a release on Wednesday, has said the Director General of Police (DGP) on January 27 had directed to get the exhibits re-examined at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata for a second opinion so as to clear the air and put an end to all speculations in order to establish fairness and transparency in investigation which has been maintained throughout.

Hence the Investigating Officer (IO) of the Crime Branch in this case has prayed the concerned court for getting the exhibits re-examined at CFSL, Kolkata which is a Central government body and as per the orders of the court, the available exhibits have already been sent to CFSL, for a detailed examination on January 30, the release added.

It may be recalled that the exhibits seized in the case were sent by the Investigating Officer (IO) of the Koraput district police to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) in Bhubaneswar to establish the evidence of rape.

The sent exhibits were examined at SFSL by experts of different divisions after which the final report was submitted by the Director, SFSL to the SDJM court in Jeypore.

But the SFSL report triggered a series of debate in the print and electronic media alleging inconsistency between the intermediate inter-divisional draft report and the final report of SFSL.

However, the SFSL director, in a release had later clarified that the final report submitted to the court is correct in all respect.