Paradip, July 16: The State Human Rights Commission has issued a direction for initiation of proceedings against police for its alleged bid to hush up the abduction of a 15-year-old girl in Naugaon police station area.

The girl was allegedly abducted and molested by a group of wayward youths near Gangda market in Naugaon on August 26 last year.

The victim was found in an unconscious state at a nearby village. She later claimed that the police had refused to take any action against the offenders.

When her parents visited the police station, the police even refused to lodge a complaint. The human rights commission has asked for criminal proceedings against the investigating officer for not paying attention to the complaint of the victim’s parents.

The girl’s parents had moved Orissa High Court and State Human Rights Commission seeking redressal of injustice done to her, said counsel of the petitioner Soumya Ranjan Mohanty. Responding to the high court direction, the police had registered a case against the offenders on October 4, 2011.

However, in a deliberate ploy to “weaken” the case, Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to kidnapping, was not framed against the accused persons, said Mohanty. Earlier, the then inspector of Naugaon police station, Sanatan Sahu, was transferred after a departmental inquiry found him guilty of perpetrating acts of omission and commission.

“The rights of the girl child and her parents to get justice have been grossly violated. The police have committed a mistake in discharging its responsibility by refusing to promptly register a case in connection with the incident. It is an act of wilful show of disregard to the law of the land by law enforcers. Those police officers, who dealt with the case perfunctorily, should be taken to task under legal provisions,” the rights panel observed.

Present inspector of Naugaon police station Sushant Kumar Satapathy said: “The incident of abduction and molestation occurred when I was not officiating here. During my tenure, a case has been registered against the culprits after proper investigation.”

Additional superintendent of police of Paradip Bijoy Kumar Sahu, who is also holding charge of Jagatsinghpur, said: “The police are yet to receive the direction of the human rights commission in connection with the case. Legal course of action would be initiated against the investigating officer after the receipt of the directive.”