BHUBANESWAR: After the commissionerate police helped the CBI to arrest Bibekananda Biswal, the prime accused in 1999 Baranga gang-rape case on Monday, all eyes are on the rape survivor for the test identification (TI) parade.
As 22 years have already passed since the sensational incident, identification of the accused by the rape survivor during the TI parade holds the key.
“I may face difficulty in recognizing him after 22 years. I can slightly recall his face. Recollecting the 22-year-old horrific trauma is painful, but still I will try my level best to identify him,” she told TOI. The estranged wife of a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer was allegedly gang-raped by Biswal and two of his associates -- Pradeep Sahu and Dhirendra Mohanty – in Baranga area of Cuttack district on January 9, 1999.
The woman, accompanied by a journalist friend and her driver, was returning to Bhubaneswar from Cuttack in a car when the three men, who were on a scooter, waylaid her in Baranga, drove the car to an isolated stretch and raped her. While Sahu and Mohanty were arrested in the days following the incident and handed life imprisonment in 2002, Biswal had been on the run. Sahu died of illness in Jharpada special jail in February 2020 whereas Mohanty is still serving life in Choudwar circle jail in Cuttack. The incident had triggered massive furore in the state and changed the political scene, leading to the then chief minister J B Patnaik’s ouster.
“I now expect the CBI to expedite the trial against Biswal and ensure his capital punishment or life imprisonment. Had the CBI done two decades ago what the commissionerate police did yesterday, I would have got justice long back,” she said.
She said the CBI should probe the conspiracy angle. “How did the main accused manage to evade arrest for 22 years? Who had supported him to flee and settle in Maharashtra by using a fake identity all these years? Why had there not been any attempt to trace him? The CBI should solve these mysterious questions,” she said.
On Tuesday, a senior CBI officer and public prosecutor from Kolkata called on the commissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi and took details of ‘operation silent viper’, which hunted down Biswal from hole after 22 years. “We have assured full cooperation to the CBI during their investigation and court trial,” Sarangi said.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)