police rescued females from wrongful confinement from a village in Sambalpur

Sambalpur police arrested and forwarded 3 person including two females on Monday to the judicial custody for allegedly keeping a group 11 females forcefully which includes a two years old child of Jagatsinghpur and Keonjhar districts under wrongful confinement over a period of 3 months in the name of ‘Opera’ performance in Gulamal village under Katarbaga village in the district. The prime accused and owner of ‘Samaleswar Opera group” was however managed to give a slip to the police. The females including a two years old child who were rescued from a locked house on the previous evening had made complaint before the police that were tortured both physically and mentally by the prime accused as they refused his proposal of adopting sex profession. They also made allegation that the accused was fastening their feet and hands with electric wire to keep them unmoved from the house. Police also found numerous burring scars on the body of the two years old child as the accused punched cigarette-smack on him regularly. However a lawyer of Jagatsinghpur district who was the man behind the rescue operation alleged that police acted only on the intervention of higher officials. 

“I got the information of the wrongful confinements of the females a month back when one of the victim’s relation contacted me and narrates the story.  I wrote letters to the SPs of both Jagatsighpur and Sambalpur as well intimated the matter to the CM office and NHRC. But when I did not get any response, I personally visited Sambalpur on 23^rd October and met senior police officials. I requested them to initiate action to release the females. I also visited Rengali police station but my effort was not fruitful. I once again wrote letters to every one including the DG of police requesting his intervention.” Gagan Dash, senior lawyer of Jagatsinghpur and man behind the rescue said on Monday.  According to him Sambalpur police took the matter seriously during his 2^nd visit on 31^st Oct. A team of police under the direction of Addl. SP Gopal Tripathy rushed to the village to rescue the females from their wrongful confinement.

On the other hand police denying such allegations, revealed that police had been to the place soon after getting the information two weeks back, but as there was no complaint from these victims, police could not initiate any action. “We had been to the place to find out the truth but we were unable to initiate action against the accused as none of the victims made any complaint with us” Additional SP (Sambalpur) Gopal Tripathy said.  “But this time, they made allegation of physical torture and wrongful confinement. So we rescued them and arrested the culprits. However we failed to arrest the prime accused as he managed to abscond”, Tripahty said.

victims rescued by the police

Police identified the accused as Rajendra Behera, Suna Jena, Mama Jena and kalindri Swain. Police said Mama and Suna were ‘kept’ of Rajendra and both were instigating victims to agree with the proposal of Rajendra and accused Kalindri was working as his assistance.  Police rescued total 11 females including a child of two years old. While 7 Victims belong to Jagatsighpur’s Padmapur and Naugoan villages and Cuttack’s Bayalish Mauza and Chandgudi villages one each from Keonjhar, Bhadrak and Bhubaneswar. 

Irony of the fact is that the prime accused identified as Rajendra Behera of Village Gulamal was a well known criminal of the locality. Police had accused him in two murder cases but court acquitted him in both cases as police did not gather sufficient evidence against him.