Bhubaneswar: Members of the Congress on Thursday pelted police with eggs during a protest against the alleged Kunduli gang-rape here.
The agitators also scuffled with the police at Sishu Bhavan Square when they tried to barge into Naveen Nivas, the official residence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prasad Harichandan, the party's Odisha in-charge Subhankar Sarkar and former MP Pradeep Majhi were present during the strike along with the brother of the "gang-rape" victim. The protesters shouted anti-government slogans and reached Sishu Bhavan Square after a meeting at the Congress office.
The agitators criticised the chief minister for announcing a special investigation team (SIT) on Wednesday. "The chief minister's announcement proved that the state police hushed up the entire matter. If he was so concerned then he would have announced the SIT probe before the victim's suicide. The girl was forced to commit suicide as she was denied justice," said Harichandan.
Both the Congress and the BJP have staged several demonstrations ever since the minor girl killed herself on January 22. Both the Opposition parties had also called for dawn-to-dusk strikes across the state on January 24.
BJP members also clashed with the police at the same location on January 23. The protesters had pelted the police with stones, and the cops responded with a lathi charge. More than a dozen people from both the sides were injured in the clash.
Majhi, who has been spearheading the Congress protest in Koraput, demanded the chief minister's resignation over the issue. "The SIT probe is a mere eyewash. The government has turned a blind eye towards atrocities on women and everyone has the right to take up the matter with the chief minister. But the police are preventing us from meeting him," alleged Majhi.
Later, the cops took more than 200 protesters into preventive custody.
The 14-year-old from Musaguda village under Pottangi police limits had alleged that she was gagged and gang-raped at gunpoint by four uniformed personnel in the Lanjiguda forest on her way to school from Kunduli on October 10. However, the police claimed that her medical examination did not reveal any sexual abuse. The girl had attempted suicide twice before killing herself on January 22.
The state government on Thursday formally requested a sitting judge of Orissa High Court to monitor the SIT investigation.
