Nayagarh, Feb 6: The accused in the sensational Pari rape and murder case in Odisha’s Nayagarh district has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.
The Special Children’s Court convicted the minor boy and announced the punishment.
It is worth mentioning that the heinous crime which sent shockwaves across the state and triggered massive public outrage took place in July 2020.
Pari, a five-year-old daughter of rickshaw-puller Ashok Sahu and his wife Saudamini Sahu of Jadupur village in Nayagarh, had gone missing on July 14 while playing outside.
Her skeletal remains were found stuffed in a sack outside their house ten days later.
Thereafter, her father alleged that Pari had been killed by one Babuli Nayak, who is an aide of the then Higher Education and Panchayati Raj Minister Arun Sahoo, as he was accused of trafficking human organs.
The Sahu couple also attempted self-immolation outside the Odisha Assembly on November 24 demanding a fair and unbiased investigation in the case.
Following this, the demand to get justice for Pari spread as a wildfire across the state.
Later, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik ordered the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case which was led by senior IPS officer Arun Bothra.
The SIT claimed to crack the case after the arrest of the minor boy. He reportedly confessed to the crime during interrogation.
The accused confessed that he took the minor girl to a room when he was alone at his house on July 14, 2020, and attempted to sexually assault her. As she resisted and started screaming, he allegedly killed her and dumped the body near a pond fearing getting caught.
