Jajpur Pihu Missing Row: OSPCR Chairperson Makes Controversial Statement

Jajpur: Rubbing salt on the wounds of the parents of Pihu, the five-year-old girl who went missing in 2020, the OSPCR Chairperson held the parents and villagers responsible for the child’s disappearance.

The OSPCR chairperson Sandhyabati Pradhan visited Jajpur district  on Monday and blamed the villagers for Pihu’s disappearance. “The family are equally responsible as the police behind the missing of the minor child,” she told mediapersons.

Pihu, a two-year-old girl then, went missing on August 9, 2020 from her uncle’s house at Madhusudanpur village near Jajpur and is still untraceable.

The police have cut a sorry figure and have missed the four-week deadline set by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to trace the girl.

The commission issued the direction on the basis of a petition filed by the mother of the missing girl. Pihu’s mother Monalisa Nayak stated in the petition that her daughter had gone missing from their village Madhusudanpur under Binjharpur police station on August 9 last year. She had filed a missing case at the local police station on August 14.

As the police failed to make any progress in tracing Pihu, the petitioner said her family had conducted an elaborate search at different places but could not find her. They had also approached district collector and SP in this regard. Besides, she had petitioned Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to help her find her missing minor daughter.

As she was yet to find her minor daughter even one year after she went missing, Monalisha approached the NHRC to intervene in the matter.