Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has directed a crime branch probe into the alleged abduction and killing of a five-year-old girl in Nayagarh district, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Minister of State (Home), said in the assembly on Wednesday.
The deceased girl’s father Ashok Sahoo and mother Saudamini on Tuesday attempted self-immolation outside the Odisha assembly alleging that they have been denied justice.
The Minister informed that the crime branch will take appropriate action as per the law after undertaking a proper investigation into the matter.
He said as many as 34 suspects have been questioned while four persons underwent polygraph tests at the state forensic science laboratory here in connection with the case.
The Nayagarh Sadar police had registered a case on July 14 this year.
Notably, the child had gone missing while playing in front of her house on July 14. Later on July 23, her decomposed body was found packed in a sack behind the house near a pond.
The post mortem examination revealed that “bone and soft tissue produced is of human origin and appears to of a female child of age 5-6 years”.
Opinion about sexual abuse and cause of death cannot be determined at this stage of decomposition with available body parts, the Minister said.
Following demands by the opposition BJP and the Congress for a government statement, Speaker Surya Narayan Patro had on Tuesday asked the Minister to inform the House about the self-immolation attempt and the alleged murder of the minor girl.
The opposition parties are trying to corner the state government after the deceased’s parents alleged that Minister Arun Sahoo is shielding the accused.
