Bhubaneswar, Feb. 18: The National Commission for Women, which sent a copy of its report on the Pipili gangrape case to the state government yesterday, has criticised the local police for failing to help the victim immediately after the incident.

It said: “The most important factor, which determined the course of legal action in the case and the nature of medical treatment received by the girl, is the failure of the local police station to register the case on the date of incident and even on November 30, when the family lodged a written complaint.”

The commission, in its report, criticised senior police officers for suggesting that the victim should have approached them if the local police station failed to register her complaint.

It said the senior police officers should have resorted to “sympathetic hand-holding and counselling”, instead of putting the onus on the family, which was already distressed because of the delay in drafting the written complaint. “This is against the spirit of law and should be stopped forthwith,” said the commission.

The commission observed that had the FIR been in place, all the medical institutions involved could have been alerted and the girl would have received uninterrupted medical attention. A system should be developed for sharing data among different medical intuitions in referral cases, so that treating doctors can check whether the police have appropriately registered medical or legal cases.

The report also criticised the complete lack of coordination among different medical institutions, such as Pipili Primary Health Centre, Capital Hospital and SCB Medical College, because of which the victim had to be moved back and forth several times for treatment.

“There was no system for monitoring the data relating to transfer of a critical patient from one hospital to another, leading to complete disconnect where the family members had to make several journeys for the same reason.”

It asked the state government to prepare a flexible scheme for the medial treatment of the victim, as it was not clear how long she would take to recover completely.

The commission further said the state government should issue a directive to seniormost police officers, advising them to ensure that all cases of violence against women, if reported, were registered immediately and an FIR lodged.

Medial evidence should be collected without delay, so that the registered case leads to conviction. Any delay or inaction should be followed with immediate disciplinary action.

On the directive of the commission, its member secretary Anita Agnihotri had visited the state on February 2 and 3.