Angel And Demons

The ‘Pari case’, as it has come to be known, has not budged an inch from the limelight since it burst into public glare under bizarre circumstances nearly a month ago. Shock and outrage swept across Odisha as the parents of Pari, a five-year-old girl from Jadupur village in Nayagarh district, attempted self- immolation in front of the assembly on November 24 in a desperate bid to draw the attention of the powers-that-be after being driven to mental meltdown by local police—over four months after Pari was abducted and killed on July 14.

Since then, the case has riveted public attention as it has taken one bizarre turn after another. After being rescued by police while trying to self-immolate on November 24, Pari’s parents—Ashok and Soudamini Sahu—had alleged that their daughter was killed by cartel of ill­egal human organ trade for transplants. They even named the killer as Babuli Nayak of their village and pointed finger at agriculture and higher education minister Arun Sahoo for allegedly shielding Babuli.

With the winter session on, the case expectedly took the assembly by storm. Both the BJP and the Congress rejected a probe by the state police’s crime branch, pointing to its shameful record in solving past cases, and demanded an independent inquiry by a credible agency. They attempted to put the Naveen Patnaik government on the mat. With the heat refusing to dissipate, the chief minister announced a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) monitored by a siting high court judge. The SIT is headed by IG-level officer Arun Bothra, who has a stellar record in solving complicated cases, including the bizarre ‘parcel bomb case’ which was made into a Bollywood film titled Patnagarh.

While the parents of Pari continue to hold on to the organ racket theory, the SIT has arr­ested Saroj Sethi, a college student and Pari’s neighbour, for sexually assaulting and killing the little girl. At a press conference on December 22, Bothra gave a blow-by-blow account of how Sethi committed the crime and then hid the body in a sack for nine days. But nobody believes the SIT version. Pari’s parents rejected it and cleared Saroj.

The ‘sexual assault’ angle has raised eyebrows since it was never explored by Nayagarh police for four months. In fact, home minister Capt. Dibya­shan­kar Mis­hra, in his reply to the assembly, had categorically ruled out rape But Bothra maintains that the SIT has sufficient and clinching evidence to prove its claim in court.

With the BJP relentless on its twin demand for a CBI probe and the ouster of Sahoo, the Pari case is set to dominate the political discourse for quite some time.

By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar