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 have launched “Operation Silent Viper” to trace and arrest the accused. Our groups have been energetic in Maharashtra after having obtained a tip off about his whereabouts and we have been working carefully with the Maharashtra police. He was working there below a pretend identification of Jalandhar Swain at Idyllic resorts,” Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi stated.
Three individuals together with the accused had allegedly raped the survivor, who was 29 then, inside a automobile in entrance of her pal. The case was reported on January 9, 1999. Seventeen days after the incident, two of the accused have been arrested whereas Biban had been on the run for greater than 20 years. The two accused who have been arrested earlier within the case have been convicted and sentenced to life time imprisonment by the District and Sessions Judge of Khurda district. One of the convicts within the case, Pradip Sahu, often known as Padia, had died whereas present process remedy at Capital hospital in February final 12 months.
Reacting to the arrest, the survivor stated, “All these years, I felt like dead inside, every day was a struggle to know that my perpetrator was free and yet to be arrested. For all these years, justice was denied. I want he (Biban) should be sentenced to death penalty,” she stated.
The incident had created a state broad outrage, with the survivor additionally accusing the then CM JB Patnaik and his affiliate of getting performed a job within the incident, resulting in the CM’s resignation.