Prime Accused In Kalahandi Gang-Rape Arrested

Bhawanipatna: The police on Saturday finally arrested the prime accused in the alleged gang-rape of a 22-year-old woman inside the forest in Junagarh area in Odisha’s Kalahandi district on September 14.

The prime accused, Lalindra Sabar alias Narendra Sabar, was produced in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) after his arrest. But as the court had remained closed on account of Mahalaya, police produced him in the official residence of the magistrate who remanded him to the jail after rejecting his bail plea.

It may be mentioned that eight days after she was gangraped, the victim had lodged a complaint in the Junagarh police station on September 23. The victim, in a fresh statement recorded at the Junagarh police station on Saturday, said that she had not registered the complaint on the day of the incident since Lalindra told her that if she lodges a complaint, both of them will be maligned. On his suggestion, she did not reveal his complicity to the police in her earlier statement. But after the police arrested nine other accused except him, she gave a fresh statement to a web channel on September 27, saying it was Lalindra who had first raped her.

Acting on the statement of the victim, Kalahandi SP, B. Gangadhar in a press briefing on Friday had said that the police will record fresh statement of the accused and arrest Lalindra.

Police on Saturday brought the duo to Junagarh police station and later arrested Lalindra.

The victim, in her statement to the web channel, had said she had gone to Bhawanipatna on September 14 for a medical check-up. There, Lalindra Sabar alias Narendra Sabar met her at the bus stand and offered her a lift on his bike to her village. On the way, he received several calls on his mobile phone. Suddenly, he slowed down his bike near a temple at Banamalipur. Soon, six youths came out of the Jaring forest behind the temple and forcibly took her inside the forest where Lalindra first raped her. Later, she was raped by the other youths. “While the police have arrested the nine accused, why did they let Lalindra go scot-free when he was the prime accused? I will commit suicide if the police does not arrest him immediately,” she had threatened.

The incident took a political turn after BJP state general secretary Lekhasri Samantsinghar in a press briefing in Bhubaneswar on Friday alleged that the Junagarh police have released Lalindra due to pressure from the ruling BJD.

“Lalindra is the driver of a private bus owned by Prabodh Rath, working president of the Kalahandi District BJD unit and is close to the local MLA and the minister Dibya Shankar Mishra,” she said.

“Since the victim has named Lalindra as the prime accused, let the minister direct Prabodh Rath to ask his bus driver to surrender before the police,” she demanded.

Denying his role in the incident, the minister said that this is a highly sensitive incident and should not be politicised.