NCW begins probe into Pipili rape case, meets victim's family

A three-member team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) today began a probe into the rape and attempt-to-murder of 19-year-old Dalit girl at Pipili in Odisha's Puri district.

Led by its member secretary Anita Agnihotri, the team visited SCB Medical College Hospital at Cuttack where the victim had been admitted at its ICU. They could not speak to her as she has been in semi-coma stage.

Agnihotri, however, spoke to the girl's father and relatives who were present at the hospital during the visit.

She also enquired about the victim's treatment and spoke to hospital superintendent and doctors.

The girl was admitted at the hospital following a Orissa High Court direction. The HC had been monitoring the treatment and investigation into the case.

The victim is suffering from speech impairment since the rape incident on November 28, 2011 as the miscreants had tried to kill her by strangulation.

Before leaving Cuttack, the NCW team met the DGP and the DIG, CID and Crime Branch, who is probing the incident.

Though the girl was allegedly raped by four persons on November 28, 2011, police registered an FIR on January 9 this year after the State Human Rights Commission intervened.

State agriculture minister Pradip Maharathy, who had been charged with shielding the persons accused in the rape case, had resigned on "moral ground" on January 19.

The four accused were arrested in connection with the incident to which the Odisha government has ordered a judicial probe by Justice PK Mohanty, a retired judge of Orissa High Court.