Cops forced me to lie, says Odisha rape victim

BHUBANESWAR: The minor girl, who was allegedly gangraped by four armed jawans, of an unidentified wing of the Central paramilitary forces, in a forest near Kunduli in Odisha’s Koraput district on October 10, has made shocking revelations in a video.

In the video, she said she was once interrogated by the police at her home at midnight where the police pressurised her to admit that she was not raped by jawans but by her own cousin brothers and uncles.

“They tried to convince me that one of my cousin brothers has confessed that he was involved in the incident. Though I denied their claim, they still went on questioning me against my will,” she said in the video that appears to have been recorded on a mobile phone at Koraput‘s SLN Medical College where she is undergoing treatment now.
“The cops, who had come in a civil dress, interrogated me in front of my brother, who was earlier questioned by them as a suspect in the case. I woke up shocked when they barged into the house that night. ‘DIG madam’ (S. Saini) who was them told me that I am lying,” the victim said.

The girl expressed shock that the police called her cousin brothers and relatives, including maternal and paternal uncles, to the police stations and interrogated them as suspects in the case.

The villagers, most of who are illiterates and semi-literates and belonging to the marginalised scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities, have started cursing her after the incident holding her responsible for the ordeal of her family members in the hands of police.