AICC team visits crime spot

Bhubaneswar: A high-level Congress fact-finding team, led by former AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunshi, visited Gopalpur beach in Ganjam district on Saturday where a 20-year-old college student was allegedly gang-raped by 10 persons. Besides Dasmunshi, the all-women team comprisesMPs Ranjeet Ranjan, Praniti Shinde and S Jothimani and former Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza. The team is tasked with conducting an on-the-spot inquiry, meeting the victim, her family, law enforcement officials and other stakeholders and preparing a report to be submitted to the AICC president.

Ten persons, including four minors, have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of the college student at the famed Gopalpur beach. The incident happened on June 15 night when the woman, an undergraduate student at a private college, went to the beach along with her boyfriend, who is a classmate, on the occasion of the Raja festival.

Speaking to reporters, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das said, “The party has taken the recent cases of violence against women in Odisha very seriously and therefore dispatched a high-level fact-finding team. I have also written to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi seeking time for the team to meet him.” “I hope, the Chief Minister will allot time to meet the team members,” Das added.

At Gopalpur, the team members discussed the matter with people and asked them on patrolling in the area. The team also met Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M and discussed both the Gopalpur gang-rape case and the rape of two minor girls in Golanthara on June 5. The SP informed the team that all accused persons in both cases have been arrested.

“We visited the spot where the girl was gang-raped on Gopalpur beach and found that there were no safety measures for women on the beach despite the place being an important tourist destination. We also plan to meet President Droupadi Murmu,” said Rajya Sabha member Ranjan, adding that the three MPs will raise the matter in Parliament.

Ranjan claimed that atrocities against women in Odisha were increasing as at least three gang-rape cases were reported this week. “When our MLAs demanded to form a House committee and discuss the matter, the government did not listen and suspended them from the House,” she said. Meanwhile, Odisha Pradesh Mahila Congress president Meenakshi Bahinipati and party MLA Sofia Firdous held a press conference over the gang-rape cases in Delhi. In a recent social media post, Congress leader and party’s Lok Sabha member Priyanka Gandhi had condemned the Gopalpur gang-rape case and accused the State’s BJP government of gross negligence.

The BJP’s Ganjam district president Saroj Sabat said the government has taken the matter very seriously and an IGP-ranked officer has been supervising the investigations.

Senior BJD leader Chandra Sekhar Sahu, a former MP, said his party was first to protest the Gopalpur case. The BJD president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik also condemned the incident and expressed concern over such a heinous crime at a tourist spot.