Congress Team Arrives in Balasore to Investigate Rape and Murder of Minor Girl
A Congress investigation team visits Balasore, Odisha, to probe the tragic rape and murder of a minor girl, following public outcry.
Balasore, October 23 (Daily Kiran) : A team from the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee arrived in Balasore on Friday to investigate the tragic rape and murder of a minor girl. The team was dispatched under the direction of party president Bhakta Charan Das, following the discovery of the girl’s decomposed body on Thursday.
According to a statement from the Congress office, the fact-finding team plans to visit the victim’s native village, meet with her family, and inspect the crime scene. The delegation includes Ashok Das, Deputy Chief Whip of the Congress Legislative Party in the Assembly, former MLA Debiprasanna Chand, and PCC General Secretary Sanjeev Giri.
The victim, a 10th-grade student, was reportedly acquainted with the accused, Chandrakant Jena, also known as Kanha, from Sultanpur village in the Jaleswar police jurisdiction. Local sources indicate that on October 16, Kanha lured the victim under the pretense of taking her to a nearby market on his motorcycle. When she did not return home for several hours, her parents contacted the police, alleging that Kanha had abducted her. It is reported that local police briefly detained him but later released him after questioning.
Following the emergence of crucial evidence, police re-arrested Kanha on Thursday. During interrogation, he confessed to raping and murdering the girl. Based on his statements, authorities recovered her partially burned body from the crime scene.
The discovery of the body incited protests from relatives and villagers, who demanded accountability for the local police’s alleged negligence in handling the case.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Balasore Superintendent of Police Pratyush Diwakar described the incident as extremely tragic. He confirmed that police received a report of the girl’s disappearance on October 16 and quickly took the suspect into custody. Continuous questioning revealed that on the day she went missing, Kanha had forcibly assaulted her. When the girl resisted, he strangled her to death in a fit of rage.
The case has now been assigned to an officer of DCP rank for further investigation. The SP denied any involvement of additional suspects in this heinous crime, emphasizing their priority to expedite the charge sheet process and ensure a fast-track trial for swift justice.
In response to the seriousness of the situation, the SP suspended Jaleswar police station’s sub-inspector Karan Marandi for negligence and transferred the inspector-in-charge of the same station with immediate effect.
