Indus Valley Times

Mother suspects role of cloth hawkers behind missing, special teams formed to trace out the girl

By Kishore Mohapatra & Narayan Behera

Nayagarh, Dec. 13: Even as the police gropes in darkness to crack the kidnapping and murder of the five-year-old girl Amrita Sneha Sahoo (Pari) of Nayagarh, another girl from the district went missing on Friday.

As per reports, the three-year-old girl Swati, daughter of Sanjaya Sahoo, was last seen playing near her house at Dadhipatna village under Ranpur block in the district on Friday afternoon.

Though the parents of the girl launched a search operation, they failed to trace her.  Later, they filed a written complaint at Rajsunakhala police outpost in this connection. The local police and fire fighters immediately rushed to the village and launched a massive search operation to trace the missing girl.

The search operation was still on till this report was filed.

“At around 3 PM yesterday, my daughter was playing in front of our house. I was then doing some household works inside the house. When I came out after a few minutes, I found her missing. I suspect some cloth hawkers came to our village yesterday afternoon to sell blankets might have kidnapped her,” Swati’s mother said on Saturday.

The Nayagarh district police on Saturday formed two special teams to trace out the girl.

The abduction of the three-year-old girl came at a time when the ruling BJD headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik is facing strong criticism from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress of kidnapping and murder of a five year-old girl hailing from Jadupur in the same Nayagarh district.

The five-year-old-girl named Amrita Sneha Sahoo alias Pari was kidnapped while playing before her house on July 14. Her skeletal remains stashed in gunny bag were recovered from the backyard of her house on July 23. Pari’s father has alleged the hand of a local BJD man – Babuli Nayak – in the murder of her daughter. He even accused the state agriculture minister Arun Kumar Sahoo of protecting Babuli Nayak.

The Pari kidnapping and murder incident has kicked off a major political stir in Odisha after the girl’s parents attempted suicide in front of the State Assembly last month. The Opposition parties subsequently tried to corner the State government by pressing for immediate expulsion of minister Arun Sahoo for his alleged complicity in the case.

Later, the Odisha government has ordered an investigation into the case by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by senior IPS officer Arun Bothra.