A plethora of news coming from my homestate of Odisha on media, social or otherwise regarding crimes against women including rapes and molestation is disgusting as well as disturbing.
Disgusting - can't think of a better word to depict these incidents. Disturbing - coming from a state where the folks are known to be laid back, docile and mostly law fearing (fear of law enforcement keep their libidos in check. Apparently, not ant more).
My first memory of such heinous crime goes back to 1980 when as a 11 year old, I was not old enough to comprehend the depth of the crime - yet old enough to recognize its evilness and impertinent to any Civil society. It was he rape and murder of Chhabirani, the wife of a journalist who went above and beyond his job to expose the nexus of a cabal of crooks of petty politicians, local officials and small time businessmen in coastal Odisha's Jagatsinghpur, then part of Cuttack district.
It was an unusual bold step for a journo from a state where his fraternity's ethics can be judged by the paens of your praise they can heap on you for a bottle of liquor. (Khushwant Singh once wrote that Indian journalists are champion consumers of alcohol as long as paid by others. Usual disclaimers apply).
The tragedy happened when chased by criminals, the journalist accompanied by his pregnant wife and child were trying to flee his village in the middle of night. The moon was pale as they tried to cross the BILUAKHAI river, one of several river distributaries criss crossing the vast Mahanadi delta.
Here is where the details get sketchy. Some say the pregnant wife along with her little kid could not cope with his faster walking husband and fell behind getting separated for ever. Another version - the man had to attend his nature's call and took time to relieve near the river bed and wash himself clean as many villagers do. He lost some valuable time only to come back and regret later. We don't know.
But what we know, the men on chase took their turns to rape Chhabirani to death along with her yet to be born child. Her semi buried body from the sands of river was later recovered. But this incident survived the sands of time to become a folklore of the area for a long time to come.
It was the age sans social media when internet and cell phones were strictly fantasy. TV was non existent. "The SAMAJA", the only widely circulated vernacular newspaper of the time with some reach to the interior parts of Odisha carried the news. The brutality of the crime against a pregnant woman raped and killed in cold blood caught the imagination of the common man of Odisha - at least in its thickly populated coastal belt.
Laxman Mullick, the contemporary MP of Jagatsinghpur was accused of shielding the perpetrators of this inexcusable act, so also his higher ups who tried their best to protect their political turf by containing the fall out of the crime. Time flew. Years later, I read the news of the berieved journalist getting remarried, leading a low profile life. Was justice ever delivered and those who commited the crime got punished ? Your guess is as good as mine.
Disgusting - can't think of a better word to depict these incidents. Disturbing - coming from a state where the folks are known to be laid back, docile and mostly law fearing (fear of law enforcement keep their libidos in check. Apparently, not ant more).
My first memory of such heinous crime goes back to 1980 when as a 11 year old, I was not old enough to comprehend the depth of the crime - yet old enough to recognize its evilness and impertinent to any Civil society. It was he rape and murder of Chhabirani, the wife of a journalist who went above and beyond his job to expose the nexus of a cabal of crooks of petty politicians, local officials and small time businessmen in coastal Odisha's Jagatsinghpur, then part of Cuttack district.
It was an unusual bold step for a journo from a state where his fraternity's ethics can be judged by the paens of your praise they can heap on you for a bottle of liquor. (Khushwant Singh once wrote that Indian journalists are champion consumers of alcohol as long as paid by others. Usual disclaimers apply).
The tragedy happened when chased by criminals, the journalist accompanied by his pregnant wife and child were trying to flee his village in the middle of night. The moon was pale as they tried to cross the BILUAKHAI river, one of several river distributaries criss crossing the vast Mahanadi delta.
Here is where the details get sketchy. Some say the pregnant wife along with her little kid could not cope with his faster walking husband and fell behind getting separated for ever. Another version - the man had to attend his nature's call and took time to relieve near the river bed and wash himself clean as many villagers do. He lost some valuable time only to come back and regret later. We don't know.
But what we know, the men on chase took their turns to rape Chhabirani to death along with her yet to be born child. Her semi buried body from the sands of river was later recovered. But this incident survived the sands of time to become a folklore of the area for a long time to come.
It was the age sans social media when internet and cell phones were strictly fantasy. TV was non existent. "The SAMAJA", the only widely circulated vernacular newspaper of the time with some reach to the interior parts of Odisha carried the news. The brutality of the crime against a pregnant woman raped and killed in cold blood caught the imagination of the common man of Odisha - at least in its thickly populated coastal belt.
Laxman Mullick, the contemporary MP of Jagatsinghpur was accused of shielding the perpetrators of this inexcusable act, so also his higher ups who tried their best to protect their political turf by containing the fall out of the crime. Time flew. Years later, I read the news of the berieved journalist getting remarried, leading a low profile life. Was justice ever delivered and those who commited the crime got punished ? Your guess is as good as mine.
Very good website, thank you.
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I don't understand why due to political issues they will closed the case
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