Dharmendra Pradhan meets family of Pipili rape victim, demands re-investigation

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday met with the family members of the Pipili rape victim at their home and demanded for re-investigation of the case.

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech made on Sunday, he said, "The Prime Minister had raised the issue for the interest of the Dalit family. The victim should get justice and the case should be re-investigated. Her mother is demanding a CBI inquiry."

Pradhan took to Twitter to share details of his meeting with family of the victim and wrote, "Met with the mother and family members of rape victim to convey the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at her house in Pipili today. The family is insecure and lives under constant threat from the accused persons, who are protected by the ruling party. Also appealed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to provide security to the family members."

Asserting that the family has raised serious allegations against the shoddy inquiry and the administration, he added: "Her brother said, the Crime Branch did not accept the blood stained clothes of his gang-raped sister as evidence. They later submitted it before the judicial commission. If the Crime Branch had conducted the inquiry in the right direction, the victim would have got justice. Her mother and father were inconsolable and could not stop their tears. Her brother is afraid and worried. An Insensitive government misguided the investigation."

Demanding that the state government must handover the case to central probe agency CBI, Pradhan said, "The victim should get justice and the case should be re investigated. Her mother is demanding a CBI inquiry. If Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has respect for women he should handover the case to CBI and apologise to the women of Odisha. The 4.5 cr Odias are with the victims family."

On Saturday, Prime Minister Modi had targeted the state government on the issue while addressing a public rally in the state and said, "The state government could not provide justice to a girl in an incident that took place 7-8 years ago in the Puri district. It is obvious for girls and women to be angry over carelessness in the investigation which led to denial of justice to the victim.