5-year-old rape victim's mother places before SC, record of orders passed by Odisha HC

Complying with an order of the apex court, the mother of a five-year-old girl, who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and killed in July last year, on Friday placed on record the two Odisha High Court orders before the Supreme Court after The Supreme Court was hearing the petition filed by Saudamini Sahoo seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into her daughter's death.

The Supreme Court had yesterday asked Saudamini Sahoo, to place on record before it by today, the two orders passed by the Odisha High Court, to ensure perusal by it to proceed in the case further.

Today, during the course of the hearing before the Supreme Court, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioner said, "We have done our part and filed them before you my lord's."

To this, the bench of the apex court, led by Justice A M Khanwilkar and also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna, asked, "What is the content? We want to read the orders. We are yet to receive it."

"Neither I nor my brother has received the orders asked for yesterday," the bench said.The Supreme Court then asked the petitioner why she didn't approach the Odisha High Court. Sahoo's husband has filed one petition there and she has filed another. We would like to see what HC says and fixed the matter for further hearing on July 23, Friday, the top court said.

The incident took place in Odisha's Nayagarh in July last year.

The writ petition has been filed by Sahoo under Article 32 for violation of her fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and therefore seeks a direction for an independent investigation to be conducted by the CBI in the rape and murder of the petitioner's 5-year-old daughter, the petition said.

The petitioner "has lost hope in a fair investigation and justice and became a subject of harassment and boycott by the society, as well as the law enforcement agencies," the petition field by petitioner's lawyer, Mahesh Jethmalani, and Ravi Sharma, stated.

Respondent 1, is the premier investigating police agency, CBI "It has a major role in the preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy," the petition said.

The petitioner stated that on July 13, 2020, her daughter, was allegedly kidnapped, when she was playing outside her house. Nine days after the incident, on July 23 some pieces of the broken skeleton of the child being tied with a bag and dumped under garbage were found from a distance of the backyard of the house belonging to one Biranchi Sahoo.

The police officers were treating the petitioner and her family members as criminals and have been completely insensitive towards their complaint, the petition claimed

The petitioner and her husband were picked up on July 26 last year and were forced to remain for 12 hours with the police, without any food and water and were only dropped at the midnight after being tortured and mentally harassed. It is only with the intervention of the Odisha High court on August 11 last year that the petitioner and her husband got protection, the petition said.

The conduct of the probe agency, the Odisha state police, illustrated that they have vested interest in undermining the investigation in as much as already the case has lead to mass protest in the state and the credibility of the state police, crime branch, and SIT is at stake, the petition said.

"The state police department cannot be entrusted with the investigation of the alleged offences as their conduct in investigating of the said incident illustrates the fact that they are shielding the real accused persons and diverting the issue," the petition claimed.

( With inputs from ANI )

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