The Odisha police on Monday arrested the prime accused within the sensational gangrape case involving the estranged spouse of an IFS officer, after 22 years from Maharashtra. The case had created a political uproar within the state resulting in the resignation of the then Chief Minister of Odisha, JB Patnaik, in 1999.
Bibekananda Biswal alias Biban was arrested by the Twin metropolis commissionerate police from Aamby Valley in Lonavala the place he labored as a plumber. “We now have launched “Operation Silent Viper” to trace and arrest the accused. Our groups had been energetic in Maharashtra after having acquired a tip off about his whereabouts and we had been working intently with the Maharashtra police. He was working there underneath a faux id of Jalandhar Swain at Idyllic resorts,” Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi mentioned.
Three individuals together with the accused had allegedly raped the survivor, who was 29 then, inside a automobile in entrance of her good friend. The case was reported on January 9, 1999. Seventeen days after the incident, two of the accused had been arrested whereas Biban had been on the run for greater than 20 years. The 2 accused who had been arrested earlier within the case had been convicted and sentenced to life time imprisonment by the District and Classes Choose of Khurda district. One of many convicts within the case, Pradip Sahu, also referred to as Padia, had died whereas present process remedy at Capital hospital in February final yr.
Reacting to the arrest, the survivor mentioned, “All these years, I felt like lifeless inside, day by day was a battle to know that my perpetrator was free and but to be arrested. For all these years, justice was denied. I need he (Biban) needs to be sentenced to dying penalty,” she mentioned.
The incident had created a state extensive outrage, with the survivor additionally accusing the then CM JB Patnaik and his affiliate of getting performed a task within the incident, resulting in the CM’s resignation.
