Orissa High Court Orders CID Probe To Determine Authenticity Of Affidavit Allegedly Filed By Minor Rape Victim Claiming To Be Married To Accused

The Orissa High Court on Friday ordered the CID-Crime Branch to initiate a probe to determine the authenticity of an affidavit purportedly filed by a minor rape victim, claiming to be the wife of the accused in order to facilitate grant of bail to him. The controversy came to light when the concerned investigating officer (IO) submitted a report before the Court claiming that the affidavit had not been filed by the victim.

In the instant case, the minor victim had allegedly filed a notarised affidavit on April 6, 2021 detailing her marriage to the accused in 2019 with marriage photographs annexed to the affidavit. The Court vide order dated April 27, 2021 had directed the concerned IO to submit a report after examining the contents of the affidavit.

Taking cognisance of the issue, Justice S.K Sahoo ordered,

"In such state of affairs, this Court thinks it proper that the matter should be enquired into by the CID, Crime Branch, Odisha which is a premier investigating agency of the State as to whether the said Anita Behera (Naik) has sworn affidavit in question before Notary, Cuttack Town on 06.04.2021 being identified by Mr. B.N. Mohapatra and whether the signatures of Anita Behera appearing on the affidavit as well as Vakalatnama are genuine or not and whether the marriage photographs annexed to the affidavit are that of the petitioner and the victim or not."

According to the IO's report the victim had fled her home with the accused and had resided in his house at Gohida in Deogarh district. Further, there was no marriage that took place between the two as the victim is a minor. After registration of the instant case, the minor victim was rescued and handed over to her parents. Since then she has been residing at her parents' house. When asked whether she had signed the impugned affidavit filed before the Court, she denied such assertion, the IO claimed in his report.

The Court thus ordered that a responsible officer of the Crime Branch shall be entrusted by the Superintendent of Police, CID to conduct further inquiry into the matter by examining the victim, the concerned Notary of Cuttack and also the Advocate who had verified the impugned affidavit. A detailed report in this regard was directed to be filed before the Registrar of the Court by 30th July 2021.

"The Registrar (Judicial) shall supply a Xerox copy of the affidavit sworn to by Smt. Anita Behera (Naik) along with copies of the annexed photographs and documents and copy of Vakalatnama filed by the victim to Mr. Abhinandan Pradhan, learned counsel for the State by tomorrow (15.07.2021) to do the needful", the order stated.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 3. The Officer entrusted to enquire into the matter has been directed to appear via Video Conferencing on the next date of hearing.

Case Title: Khaga Naik v. State of Odisha 

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