Shivani Pandey-
The Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) requested the Apex Court to reconsider the charge sheet filed by Odisha Police into the politically delicate alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, last year.
This request comes since there is widespread fear in the local public of the child being killed by a mafia of illegal organ harvesting racket.
During the hearing on a writ petition filed by the victim’s mother Saudamini Sahoo, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and the CBI, presented that even in politically motivated proceedings in 2005 cases relating to fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati, the Supreme Court had interfered after the filing of the charge sheet and had ordered a fresh inquiry by the CBI.
“Here, all the allegations are serious. A small five-year-old girl child in Nayagarh was allegedly sexually assaulted before being murdered. Her skeletal remains were found, and locals suspect that the murder was a part of several crimes committed by a Mafia running an illegal organ harvesting racket. The Supreme Court can examine the charge sheet filed by the Odisha police”, Mehta stated.
Mahesh Jethmalani, representing the petitioner, pleaded that it was unfortunate to label the case of a mother, who lost her child in such unfortunate circumstances, as politically motivated.
The petitioner had identified Babuli Nayak, a close accomplice of Minister Arun Sahoo, as the main accused in the crime, whom she claimed was not appropriately investigated by the Special Investigation Team during the inquiry. She had moved to the Apex Court seeking a CBI inquiry into the matter.