Deepika Barik protests on Mahatma Gandhi Marg in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 11: Twenty-three-year-old Deepika Barik, who had come to the limelight in September 2009, following a police raid on an orphanage in Chandrsekharpur, today sat on a hunger strike on MG Road demanding the arrest of three women activists.

Deepika alleged that these activists had been threatening her and had even attempted to kill her in the past. However, despite complaints by her, the police and higher authorities had not taken any action against the activists.

She said last year she had lodged complaints against Ritupurna Mohanty and two other activists in different police stations of the capital alleging that they were threatening to kill her. “Until they are arrested, I will continue my hunger strike,” she said.

When the raid against the orphanage, run by the Basanti Trust in 2009 was conducted following allegations that its inmates were being subjected to sexual harassment, Deepika worked there as a cook and had been taking care of the inmates. At that time, she had also accused the trust owner of having raped her.

However, after the trust owner Byomkesh Tripathy was arrested, she made a somersault and said she had been misled by the women activists to make allegations against Tripathy.

“When I realised I had been misled, I went to the office of deputy commissioner of police in Bhubaneswar in May 2010 to lodge a case against the activists. However, the police arrested me in a false case following a complaint by the activists and I had to spend two months in jail,” she said.

She also alleged that in March 2011, an attempt on her life was made. She said she had been hit by a car in which Ritupurna Mohanty was travelling.

Deepika said despite her lodging a complaint with Saheed Nagar police, no arrests had been made till date.

“It has been more than one year since the police registered a case on my complaint, but they have not arrested Mohanty. I have also met the chairperson of the state commission for women and written letters to the chief minister, but to no avail,” she said.

Ritupurna Mohanty, whose short-stay home, Maa Ghar, had sheltered Deepika after the 2009 raid on the orphanage, said the accused in that case had been using the woman to put pressure on her (Mohanty).

“I am a vital witness in this case. As the case is drawing to a close, the accused has been using all kinds of tactics. False cases have been registered against me. I had rescued her from the orphanage. How could I try to kill her?” Mohanty said.