OD-BJP-PIPILI

BJP Mahila Morcha gherao Crime Branch headquarters
    Cuttack, Dec 31 (PTI) The BJP women's wing Monday
gheraoed the state crime branch police headquarters demanding
justice for 2011-12 Pipili gang rape and murder victim and
alleging that the prosecution botched the investigation into
it.
The BJP Mahila Morcha activists led by its president
Pravati Parida held a rally from the district party office
here and marched towards the police headquarters at Buxi
Bazaar, which also houses the crime branch headquarters.
    Initially, there was a commotion near the gates of the
police headquarters when the activists tried to barge into the
prohibited areas by breaking through the barricades and the
police cordon.
    Normalcy was restored after some activists were taken
into preventive custody. They were later released.
    A senior police officer denied charges that the police
misbehaved with the women activists.
Addressing the protest rally, Parida said her party
had earlier doubted the crime branch probe into the Pipili
gangrape and murder case as local BJD legislator and minister
Pradeep Maharathy allegedly shielded the accused.
"Our suspicion are now confirmed after six years when a
trial court exonerated the two key accused in the case for
lack of evidence," Parida said alleging that the prosecution
botched the investigations by destroying evidences.
The first additional session court of Bhubaneswar
earlier this month acquitted key accused in the case Prashant
Pradhan and his younger brother Sushant.
    The trial court however, has held that the 19-year-old
girl was murdered.
    The crime branch decided to challenge the verdict in
the Orissa High Court.
    A 19-year-old woman was found unconscious and semi-
naked in a paddy field in Pipli on November 28, 2011. She
succumbed on June 21, 2012 after remaining semi-comatose in
SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
    Maharathy had to resign from the ministry in 2012 in
the face of a statewide hue and cry for allegedly sheltering
the accused persons. Maharathy again became a minister in
2014. PTI COR AAM
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