Bhubaneswar, November 28: Bowing to Opposition pressure in the Assembly, Odisha Government on Saturday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the kidnapping and murder of five-year-old girl in Nayagarh district and requested Orissa High Court to appoint a sitting judge to monitor the probe.
According to a notification issued by the Home Department, the five-member SIT will be headed by IG of police Arun Bothra and four senior CID officers.
In a letter to the Orissa HC Registrar General, the Special Secretary to the Home Department Santosh Bala said, “It is requested to kindly place the matter before the Chief Justice with a request to kindly accord permission to monitor the investigation of the SIT by a sitting judge of Orissa High Court. Kind approval of His Lordship may please be intimated to this department.”
On Friday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced formation of an SIT in the Assembly on Friday.
The team will probe into the case of minor girl Pari being kidnapped while playing outside her residence from near her home at Jadupur village in Nayagarh district in the village in July this year. Ten days after she went missing, her bones and skull were found dumped in the backyard of her house ten days after she went missing from her home. Later, DNA tests on the bones as well as that of her parents proved that it was of the girl.
The matter came to fore four months after the incident after the girl’s parents attempted self-immolation in front of the State Assembly gate on Tuesday accusing local Nayagarh MLA and Agriculture and Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo of shielding the prime accused in their daughter’s murder.
