Kandhamal (Orissa): Our readers may remember distinctly a report in the columns of this very website a couple of weeks ago, “Christian girl raped and killed in Kandhamal. Hindu radicals suspected.” The strong suspect of that ghastly act of rape and murder has been arrested at last, a couple of days ago. Why did the police take more than two weeks to nab him when practically
everybody in the village knew who the culprit was? This is another great mystery like great many mysteries that take a long time tunfold themselves in the now very “popular” state of Orissa.

Siprian Pradhan, 48, the bereaving wreck of a father of that 17 year old poor school girl, Nirupama Pradhan, duly lodged a
police complaint at the G. Udayagiri Police Station coming under Kandhamal district, on 12th May, soon after some farmers
found the decomposing body of that unfortunate girl in a nearby field. Since the case comes under sections 376 and 302 of
IPC, the very complaint was treated as an FIR and the necessary investigations supposed to have been started immediately.
The other children who had also accompanied Nirupama to that small mango grove on the 9th afternoon to pick up some raw
mangoes, have specifically mentioned that Dinesh Nayak, a Hindu youngster belonging to the SC community from a nearby
village called Kiramaha, had called her and taken her away from among their midst. But when Nirupama did not return home till
late in the evening, the disturbed parents started inquiring about her whereabouts and they also went and asked Dinesh about
it. He supposed to have simply denied any knowledge about Nirupama’s whereabouts without batting an eyelid. The distraught
family went about searching for Nirupama for nearly three days, and to their utter shock, it was only on the third day, i.e. on 12th
afternoon, that they learnt about the ghastly tragedy through some farmers in the village.

The Pradhans, Siprian and his wife Pramila, with their four children, Purnima, Nirupama, Anil and Anupama are poor labourers,
and somehow they manage to eke out a living in their village. As poor people, they also come under the BPL (Below Poverty Line)
category and live in a small cottage constructed by the Govt. under “My Cottage” project. Nirupama studying in + 2 in Phulbani,
was indeed a great hope of their future. The whole thing now seems to have crashed to the ground and broken to smithereens.
Some of the questions still baffle us. Why were the police callous about the whole thing when they could have nabbed the suspect
within a couple of hours of inquiry and investigation? The police could have got all the necessary information from the other
girls who were with Nirupama when Dinesh, who is also called Johnny, took her away with him? Is there a difference between
the life of a young girl belonging to a poor family and a rich one? How can you, otherwise, account for this unaccountable,
perhaps deliberate, delay in apprehending and arresting the culprit? Is it something much more than what we can see at the
periphery? Is it a new method of subtly eliminating the upcoming Christian families, by the anti-Christian forces in Orissa, more so
in Kandhamal? Is Dinesh only the tip of the iceberg? The answers perhaps would unleash great many hidden agenda.

The greater tragedy is that even some section of the media has been referring to it as the “alleged” rape etc. as if the entire incident
has been deliberately planted by some vested interests. It is time that we see things with our open eyes rather than through the
colored glasses in the interests of our community and in the interests of its helpless and poor members. The girl's father, Siprian
Pradhan, had informed the Global Council of Indian Christians that he suspected his daughter had been killed by
Hindu radicals after being raped, and named an alleged culprit. The inspector in charge at G. Udayagiri Police Station, would not release any statement. The Global Council is concerned over ongoing serial killings of Christians
in the area. Previously, another Christian, Saul Pradhan, was killed and the police had refused to hand over the post-mortem report even to the widow of the deceased.

The Global Council of Indian Christians(GCIC), has been involved in this case right from the very beginning. Its Coordinator, Suranjan,
stationed at Phulbani, has been following the case very keenly. He has been in constant touch with the police and other concerned officials. The GCIC has also alerted the Orissa CM, Mr. Naveen Patnaik on this issue. Hope and pray that justice would at last prevail and all the culprits in this inhuman and ghastly tragedy would be exposed.