Odishatv Bureau
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday dismissed four persons in connection with the killing of Tikiri lady teacher for delinquency.
 
The accused officials against whom action has been taken are Rayagada District Inspector (DI) of Schools Dharanidhar Behera, School Inspector (SI) Netrananda Dandasena, Tikiri PS IIC Sujit Kumar Sai and ASI MD Pradhan.
 
Though all the four officials were earlier suspended for their alleged involvement in the case, later a high level committee set up by the school and mass education department recommended the government for the dismissal of Dandasena and Behera from service after examining the case thoroughly, official sources said.

Dandsena is the prime accused in both the molestation and murder of the lady teacher, while Behera was suspended for not taking prompt action as soon as he received complaint from the lady teacher.
 
MD Pradhan, an ASI rank police officer of Tikiri police station was suspended after failing to act upon victim’s complaint. Days later, the IIC of the same police station, Sujit Kumar Sai, was also placed under suspension for dereliction of duty.
 
The 36-year-old victim was set on fire by an unidentified person on the night of October 27 for allegedly refusing to withdraw the molestation case against Dandsena.

 
"The four have been dismissed to give a clear message to government officials across the state that any act of dereliction of duty concerning crime against women will not be tolerated. This is an exemplary action," said school and mass education secretary Usha Padhi.

 
On the other hand, the Odisha Crime Branch probing the brutal crime has brought the accused SI to Cuttack from Rayagada on four-day remand for interrogation. The investigating team is expected to quiz the accused official today regarding the sensational case.
 
In a statement before her death, the victim, who hailed from Delang of Puri district, had said to the local tehsildar that SI Dandasena had threatened her to withdraw a case of molestation lodged by her to which she refused. Later, an unidentified person set her on fire on October 27 while she was fast asleep in the school hostel. The lady teacher, who suffered 90 per cent burn injuries, finally breathed her last at a Vizag based private hospital on November 1.
 
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