Cuttack: Gautam Siddique, a high court lawyer who had filed a PIL in Orissa High Court seeking CBI probe on the alleged gang-rape incident in Kunduli, wants to withdraw his petition which is already in the midst of hearing.

Siddique has filed a petition in the high court for withdrawing his PIL.

"As the mother and the brother (blood relatives) of the deceased victim have entered the matter through two different cases praying for CBI inquiry, I don't want to proceed further with the same prayer and (want) to withdraw from the case," Siddique said in his petition filed on Wednesday.

Siddique had filed his PIL on October 3 seeking probe by CBI or the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the alleged gang-rape that the state government had denied. Acting on it, the court had issued notice to the state government on November 3.

The state government filed a counter affidavit on November 21. The high court has posted the matter to June 28 for hearing along with the reply of the state government to the rejoinder filed by Siddique to the counter affidavit filed by it. While refusing to accept a reply filed by the state and expressing displeasure as it was filed in casual manner, the high court had on May 15 fixed the fresh deadline expecting it to file a detailed status report on the case.

In his rejoinder filed earlier, Siddique had argued that "the counter affidavit of the state government is a misconceived one and liable to be ignored as the state government and entire police mechanism has miserably failed to handle the case from all aspects".

Siddique had further pointed out that the recorded statement of the singular minor witness on the basis of which allegations of rape was negated has not been submitted along with the counter affidavit.

"After long six months of occurrence of the incident, the CID-Crime Branch has miserably failed to disclose the truth behind the allegation which is creating displeasure, retaliation and confusion among the public," Siddique had contended in his rejoinder filed on May 3. In another development, petitions seeking CBI probe on the case had also been filed by Bhagaban Chhati (brother of victim), Damai Chhati (mother of the victim) and former Lok Sabha M.P. Kharavela Swain and Bharatiya Bikash Parishad.

The case assumes significance as the BJD government in the state has been under constant flak from the Opposition - both Congress and the BJP - for allegedly failing to deliver justice to the victim, who allegedly committed suicide on January 22.

The shocking incident on October 10 last year involved a minor girl allegedly being gang-raped by four uniformed personnel near Sorisapadar jungle in Koraput. The victim a class-IX student at a government school at a village in Patangi police station area, had gone to Kunduli to get her Aadhar card in the morning.

After registering her biometrics for Aadhar card, she was walking back home alone. On the way, four unidentified persons in uniform allegedly dragged her to a nearby jungle, raped her and abandoned her there.

In an affidavit filed on November 3, Koraput police superintendent Kanwar Vishal Singh had said: "During investigation, the investigating officer has examined one witness namely Papun alias Kartik Khara. As the said witness is a minor, aged about 16 years, his statement has been recorded in the presence of the District Child Protection Officer and the District Legal Protection Officer and some other witnesses and the said statement has been recorded by audio-visual means. In his statement, he has totally negated the allegations of gang-rape as he was present all along at the time of alleged incident."