Women activists stage a silent protest at College Square in Cuttack on the issue of the Pipili gangrape victim’s death on Friday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, June 22: The death of the 19-year-old girl, who had been undergoing treatment at the central intensive care unit of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack since January 11 following Orissa High Court’s order into an alleged gangrape case, has generated political heat across Odisha.

Apart from the Opposition parties, social activists today called on Odisha governor M.C. Bhandare, demanding CBI inquiry into the incident. The Opposition parties mounted pressure on the Odisha government to recommend a CBI inquiry into the incident. Pradesh Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said: “The government should recommend for CBI probe, as the state crime branch may hush up the case after the victim’s death.”

The youth wing of Cuttack city BJP unit today burnt the effigy of chief minister Naveen Patnaik for failing to deliver justice to the victim and her family.

On the other hand, CPI (Maoist) Odisha state organising secretary Sabyasachi Panda, in an audio message, today demanded a judicial probe into the Pipili case and appealed to all Opposition parties to call for a statewide strike on the issue.

However, BJD leader Damodor Rout said: “It is a sensitive matter. No one should play politics on this issue. Those, who are trying to give it a political colour, should make self-introspection.”

While the political parties and social activists are busy in a hot debate, last rites of the victim, Banita Behera, at Swargadwara in Puri could not take place today as the family members did not turn up to claim the body. Her body was lying in Puri district headquarters hospital.

Puri sub-collector Udhaba Charan Majhi said: “We have to wait till her family members arrive.” The district administration has made all-out efforts to reach to her family members throughout the day.

The family members received her body yesterday and police had accompanied them on way to their village Arjungoda in Pipili. However, on receipt of a tip-off that a protest meet was being planned to be held at Master Canteen Square near the Odisha Assembly, the police suddenly changed the route yesterday. “In a hurry, they even did not consult the family members and almost snatched the body from them and took it to her village,” said a close relative of the deceased.

Feeling ignored, the family members did not follow the dead body. Majhi said: “Had the police acted judiciously, they could have escorted the family members directly to Swargadwara and things could have been different.”

Today, Majhi rushed to Arjungoda and tried to convince the family members to receive the body. However, the kin of the deceased refused to receive her body on the plea that her parents were not present at the village. As the body was getting decomposed, the Puri district administration took it to Puri district headquarters hospital and put it at the morgue there. “We will wait till their relatives reach,” he said.

The Dalit girl had died because of septicaemia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and cardio-respiratory failure on Thursday. The Odisha government had then ordered a judicial probe into the incident following uproar over the alleged gangrape. It has announced Rs 10 lakh financial assistance for her family. However, the Opposition parties are demanding Rs 25 lakh for the family.