Bhubaneswar:
The Odisha Human Rights Commission on Friday awarded ₹50,000 as compensation on ‘humanitarian’ grounds to a minor girl gang-raped allegedly by four uniformed personnelin Odisha’s Koraput district, while directing the State’s Crime Branch to submit a progress report on the investigation into the case within four weeks.
Human rights activists Biswapriya Kanungo, Prabir Kumar Das, Pradipta Nayak, Debaranjan Sarangi and Akhanda had moved the OHRC separately, seeking its intervention in the case soon after the girl was allegedly sexually assaulted on October 10. They sought financial assistance on humanitarian grounds for the victim on grounds of severe trauma.
“It is the trite law (laws that are common knowledge) and a well-accepted proposition that monetary or pecuniary compensation is an appropriate, indeed an effective, and sometimes perhaps the only suitable remedy for the redressal of the established infringement of the fundamental right to life of a citizen. It is the obligation of a welfare State to see that its citizens live in a society without endangering their life and safety,” observed OHRC Acting Chairman Justice B. K. Mishra.
The Commission asked the Additional Director General of Police (Crime Branch) to keep it informed of the progress in the investigation.
The Naveen Patnaik government ordered a judicial probe into the gang-rape incident after the Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) of the State police said there was no evidence of rape. The HRPC had also said that no deployment of police or paramilitary personnel had been made in the Kunduli area on the day the alleged rape took place.
