After long fight, two accused were arrested by the police in
connection with merciless attack on a 10 year old son of RTI Activist of
Kendrapara district, Odisha
On 20.6.16, two accused namely Sri Pravat Kumar Sahu,
Chairman, School Management Committee of Udayabata Upper Primary School,
Bhagaban Pur and Dipu Nayak, a criminal
of Kunarapal village, were arrested and forwarded to jail by Marshaghai police in connection with
merciless attack on a 10 year old son of RTI Activist of Kendrapara district,
Odisha. But astonishingly, the police have not been able to arrest 4 to 5 main
accused dreaded criminals who had masterminded this attack on Suvam Rout, a 10
year old boy on 10.5.16, when he was asleep in the night. They have escaped from the area due to
negligence of the police to arrest them at the primary stage.
This unfortunate
incident has its background. That Sri Kalandi Nayak , a poor villager of Marshaghai Block of Kendrapara district who happens
to be member of Udayabata Upper Primary School found misappropriation of around Rs. 15 lakh fund in repair of Udayabata Upper Primary School and
mismanagement of fund for Mid-Day-Meal by the Head Master of the
School, Block Education Officer and other
officials. He used RTI extensively
filling series of application to different offices to unearth
truth and find out the
details of information about
the fund sanctioned and utilised along
with copy of bill and vouchures by the Head Master and Chairman, School Management Committee. With the incomplete information provided to him, he filed a number of complaints
to different offices like
Collector, District Project Coordinator, Kendrapara, Dept. of
School and Mass Education, Govt. of Odisha and Director, State Vigilance, Cuttack. The whole administration including local political leaders of ruling party got disturbed and tried to convince him to withdraw the
application and complaint petitions.
When Sri Kalandi remained determined to pursue the application and also filed
first appeal petition by the PIO, office of Block Education Officer,
he received a lot of threats call of
murder from different people. He has
also got the information that a coterie of powerful people including Chairman,
Marshaghai Block and Officials and Contractors are getting organised to attack
him at anytime. As kalandi remained determined
to fight it out, the coterie
of teachers, contractors and
corrupt officials got organised and
conspired to murder him and his 10 year old son. On 10.5.16, they entered into his house
in mid-night and attacked his son Suvam mercilessly with dreaded weapon. Suvam
lost his sense and his head was found bleeding profusely. Besides taking steps
to ensure admission of his severely injured
child in hospital, Kalandi filed an FIR in Marshaghai police station (IIC Mobile No- 9437523699) on 12.5.16.
The Inspector-In-Charge, Marshaghai
police station did not take any steps to
investigate into the matter.
How the issue got
cropped up ?
District Convention of Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan was organised
in Kendrapara on 22.5.16. All
the RTI Activists of Kendrapara district
including Pradip Pradhan, State Convener and Sri Sudhir Mohanty, advocate and Advisor of OSAA had participated in the convention. Getting the
information about convention, Sri
Kalandi Nayak joined in the convention ad narrated
his story of suffering and negligence of police to arrest
the culprits. It was resolved
in the convention to take up the
issue and fight it out at logical
end. The sequence of events
in respect of steps taken
by Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan
to give justice to Kalandi is as
follows.
1. On 25.5.16, a fact-finding team
comprising Pradip Pradhan, Sudhir
Mohanty, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Pratap Sahu, Rohan Mohanty, Debesh Das
visited S.C.B. Medical, Cuttack to look into
the health condition
of Suvam who was under
treatment in Central ICU. The Team
met HOD, Neurology and Associate Professors
and his mother and interacted with
them about health of the child. The
HOD said
that the child is out of danger and his health condition improving.
2. On 26.5.16, a complaint case
was filed by the members of
fact-finding to Acting Chairman, Odisha Human Rights
Commission, Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar seeking
immediate order to Director General of Police to enquire into the matter and to arrest the culprits, Authority
of S.C.B. Medical to provide free
treatment to Suvam and award Rs. 5 lakh compensation
to his family for the loss and
suffering. The Commission immediately registered the case on same day
( Registration No. 2114/2016 ) and issued notice to SP, Kendrapara to enquire
into the matter and submit action taken report to the commission within four week. The Superintendent, S.C.B.
Medical was instructed to provide free
treatment to the child. The Commission has fixed
dated 4.7.16 for hearing of the case.
3. Finding no visible progress into investigation, a team of RTI Activists and
concerned citizens met District Collector and SP, Kendrapara on 29.6.16 and submitted
memorandum demanding to arrest the culprits immediately.
4. On 8.6.16, Mass Rally
and demonstration was organised
in Kedrapara district headquarter
with participation of hundreds of
Activists condemning police inaction and allous attitude of
district administration to arrest
the culprits due to
political pressure and demanding
immediate arrest of the culprits. The rally was led by Pradip Pradhan and Ranjan Kumar
Das, District Convener, OSAA. The
Activists held day-long Dharana in front of office of Collector, Kendrapara and submitted memorandum to taken
action against IIC, Marshaghai for hobnobbing with accused.
5. On 22.6.16,
a 5-member delegation
of RTI Activists of OSAA Sri
Pradip Pradhan, Sri Rohan Mohanty, Sri Sudhir Mohanty, Sri Sudhir Rout, Sri
Ranjan Kumar Das submitted
memorandum to Director General of
Police, Cuttack highlighting nexus of
police with criminals in Kendrapara
district, sabotaging the
investigation by the police and demanding
immediate arrest of the
culprit.
Pradip Pradhan
M-9937843482
