Pari Murder Case: HC Rejected Odisha Govt Plea For Court-Monitored Probe, Says RTI Activist

Balangir: An RTI activist on Sunday claimed that the Orissa High Court has rejected the Odisha government’s request for a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the murder of a five-year-old girl at Jadupur village in Nayagarh district.

Briefing the media, RTI activist Hemant Panda said he had sought the information from the HC regarding the court-monitored SIT probe into the case on December 15 last year.

In reply, the Additional Deputy Registrar of the High Court, B Das, in his first letter stated that the court had not received such a request till January 6 this year.

However, in another letter on January 16, Das confirmed that although a particular section of the HC had received a written request from the government, the matter was dealt with confidentially by the court’s administrative side, the RTI activist added.

Panda further claimed that the HC official has said the court rejected the written request by the state government on November 28, 2020 to give permission to monitor the SIT investigation by a sitting judge. The HC had communicated this confidentially to the government on December 1, 2020.

The activist said even though the HC has turned down the request for a court-monitored probe, the state government has not disclosed this till date.

Also Read: Pari Murder Case: No Letter From Odisha Govt On Court-Monitored SIT Probe, Clarifies HC