Odisha Congress forms Fact-Finding Committee on Mayurbhanj 'gang rape' incident

Bhubaneswar, Aug 31 (IANS) The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) on Sunday constituted a fact-finding committee to probe the alleged gang rape incident reported in the Bangiriposi area of Mayurbhanj district.

PCC President Bhakta Charan Das announced the formation of the committee, appointing Sushila Tiriya as Chairperson. The other members of the committee include Congress leaders Sushmita Ghosal, Sunita Nayak, and Brundabati Mahapatra.

Das has directed the committee to immediately conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit a detailed report to the Pradesh Congress office at the earliest.

Notably, a 21-year-old woman was reportedly gang-raped by five miscreants in a passenger van on Udala-Kaptipada road within the jurisdiction of Udala police station area of Mayurbhanj district on Friday evening.

According to the complaint filed by the victim, the perpetrators reportedly assaulted the survivor inside the moving van and subsequently left her on the road after she cried out for assistance. The victim also alleged that she had first come into contact with some of the accused persons during a local fair in Bangiriposi earlier this year.

According to reports, the accused persons lured the victim by promising to help her secure a job and took her along with them in a passenger van on Friday. The police soon swung into action and detained three persons after registering a case on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim.

However, police sources claimed that the cops, during the investigation, found that the allegations made by the woman were reportedly false. It was revealed that a conspiracy had reportedly been orchestrated by an accused, recently arrested in a POCSO case, with the help of the woman, to falsely implicate the five individuals named in the fabricated complaint, as three of them are the main witnesses in the POCSO case.

The alleged victim also confessed before the court that she had made the false allegations at the behest of other persons.

--IANS

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