Cuttack rape and murder: Accused undergo lie detection tests

Eight days after the alleged rape and murder of a 25-year-old girl in the district, the Cuttack (rural) police today conducted lie-detection tests on two accused and said that further arrests, if any, would be done after the test report comes.
"The lie detection tests of both the accused persons were held in a laboratory in Bhubaneswar today and further course of action in the case would be taken after obtaining the test report", said the Cuttack (rural) SP Gurudas Kundu.
The accused are Durga Prasad Dash and Arun Kumar Panda.
The body of the girl with injuries was retrieved from a canal on the morning of September 24 and the prima facie evidences suggested that she was murdered after being repeatedly raped by more than one person on the night before.

Police arrested the prime accused Dash three days after the incident and Panda was arrested subsequently after quizzing Dash. While Panda denies his involvement in the case, Dash claims he accidentally killed the girl, with whom he was in a relation, after a spat but did not rape her.
The father of the girl maintained that more than two persons were involved in the crime and demanded stringent punishment for the culprits.

Meanwhile, a five-member team of Nationalist Lawyer Forum headed by lawyer Nishikant Mishra visited the girl's native village in Tarito under the Kishannagar police station on Tuesday and met the family members of the victim.

Alleging that the District collector was inept in handing over a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakh to the victim's father as compensation from the state government, Mishra said the family had refused to accept the damage for it was done in a callous manner.
The Forum demanded that the family should be paid a damage of Rs 20 lakh and government job should be given to the younger brother of the victim.
Mishra also alleged that the police was "soft-pedalling" the investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to the state crime branch police.