Bolangir: Born mute, Pinki (Name Changed) from Belapada block in the district could not utter a word, let alone narrate her ordeal, when three miscreants ravaged her modesty. Her feeble utterances in front of the police failed to make any impact on them just like it faded in the dark of that fateful night.
As it turned out, Pinki’s family who hails from a nondescript village in Bolangir went to work in a brick kiln at Katnapalli under Telangana’s Karinagar district like many others from Odisha who migrate to other states in search of livelihood.
Sources said, on the night of March 29, 2021, when she was out of her house on nature’s call, three earth mover operators got hold of her and raped her by using criminal force.
Sadly, this was when her ordeal started. The family went pillar to post to get justice, but nobody seemed to pay any heed to their complaints. Instead, the owner of the brick kiln allegedly forced them to stay back in the area and threatened them.
Finally, Pinki and her father managed to return to their village in search of help from other near and dear ones to get justice. But the middle man, who also accompanied them, reportedly took the girl’s father from his home to an undisclosed location before he could go to the police and open up on the incident.
Pinki’s uncle said, “My brother and niece managed to come back here after so much effort, but that middle man took him to some unknown place from his home. I want justice for my brother’s family.”
The only organisation that has taken the issue seriously is the District Divyang Sangh, which has warned of launching a large scale protest if the culprits are not arrested within eight days.
Pankajini Panda, Chairperson of District Divyang Sangh said, “Our demand is to save these migrants from torture. The administration should contact the Telangana police and administration to provide them justice as soon as possible, or else we will be forced to launch a massive protest.”
In December last year, a group of girls from Odisha who went to Andhra Pradesh to work in a spinning mill were allegedly subjected to torture and put under house arrest by the middleman. They were later rescued and sent back to their village after media reports.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)