Jan 25, 1999
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ORISSA Sordid Sequel A victim of gang rape links the incident with an earlier molestation case, resulting in widespread demands for the chief minister's ouster. By Ruben Banerjee
The incident would have remained in police records as just another rape but for the fact that the victim was Anjana Mishra. An otherwise ordinary housewife fighting for a divorce from her forest-officer husband, Mishra was pitchforked into prominence in 1997 after she accused former state advocate-general Indrajit Ray of attempting to molest her. She took him to court and Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik was drawn into the controversy for his alleged role in trying to bail out Ray, a friend of his. In a nine-page FIR, Mishra described the gang rape as a "pre-meditated act to scare me into withdrawing my charges against Ray". It led to an unprecedented public outcry in Orissa. There were statewide protests as the public organised strikes and took to the streets. Patnaik was away in Delhi but rampaging mobs targeted his official residence in the state capital. When he rushed back, angry mobs thronged the airport and he had to be whisked away by securitymen and driven home later. The reactions from the Opposition parties went along predictable lines. The CPI, CPI(M) and Janata Dal jointly called a statewide bandh. "J.B. Patnaik has lost all moral authority to rule," said Biju Janata Dal President Naveen Patnaik. The BJP was more caustic. "Orissa has become worse than Bihar," said Debendra Pradhan, former state president of the party. "The Government needs to be summarily dismissed." What perhaps stoked passions was Patnaik's remark that he was "not responsible for all dacoities and rapes in the state". And he seemed to be virtually taunting Mishra and his detractors by questioning her decision to "take the deserted road in the night instead of the regular national highway". He also found fault with Mishra's decision to venture out without the state-granted police security officer (PSO). It was only later that he ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident but many saw it as a mere eyewash. The administration, say Mishra's supporters, was trying to paint the gang rape as a stray incident of crime without hidden motives. Some officials hinted that it was a case of robbery that "inadvertently" turned into gang rape. But in her FIR, Mishra claims the miscreants knew her identity and even called her by her nickname, Rolly. Also going against the robbery theory is her claim that the miscreants returned her mobile phone after raping her. The chief minister could have kept you like a princess. Why are you still against him?" the miscreants are reported to have asked Mishra. While Patnaik dismissed the issue as a political conspiracy to defame him, even his worst critics admit that he would not have been as naive as to have instigated a gang rape. Much of the ire against him then is targeted at his "unsympathetic attitude" towards Mishra in pursuing the Ray case. A former director-general of police, Amiya Bhusan Tripathy, has even filed an affidavit in the high court, alleging that Patnaik had exerted pressure on him to go slow on the case. Even former chief minister Nandini Satpathy has gone on record stating that a section of the ruling elite was willing to cough up Rs 2 crore to buy Mishra's silence. Commenting on the lack of administrative support, Mishra contends that despite at least five reminders, she had not been provided adequate security. The one PSO she was granted, she claimed, rarely turned up. Even on that fateful night, the PSO had not shown up. Further, a report by the CBI on whether the original forensic report of the alleged rape attempt by Ray was doctored was still lying in a sealed envelope with the high court. Following the barbaric gang rape, Patnaik may have little choice but to get things rolling. Protests from the public and the Opposition apart, he is under pressure from Sonia Gandhi to pursue the case. It was at her instance that he ordered the judicial inquiry. His detractors in the party have also intensified their campaign against him. Assembly elections are due within a year and they feel Patnaik's handling of the Mishra issue could be the Congress' undoing in the state. With dissidents pressing Sonia for a change in leadership, all eyes, especially Mishra's, are on the Congress high command. |
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Commuters shuttling
between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack often cut across the picturesque Nandankanan Zoological
Park instead of taking the congested highway that links the two cities. For one such
commuter, a 29-year-old woman, the detour turned out to be a nightmare on January 9. Three
scooter-borne miscreants allegedly stopped her car, held the driver and a companion at gun
point and drew her to a nearby forest where they took turns to rape her. 
