Supreme Court’s
Indictment in Chhabi Rani Rape and Murder Case
Twenty-two years ago, the brutal rape and murder of Chhabi
Rani had sent shock waves not only through Orissa but all over the country.
There was a huge popular upsurge in Orissa demanding that the guilty be
punished. And yet it took more than 22 years for only some of the guilty to be accountable
for their crimes.
Naba Kishore
Mahapatra and Chhabi Rani first met at Puri. She was then residing with her
family, while he was studying Sanskrit. Chhabi Rani’s brother was in charge of
the Krishna Balaram Math at Puri while Naba Kishore was a tenant in their
house. Cupid struck and the couple tied the knot at the Shri Jagannath temple
at Puri. Chhabi Rani was Bengali, originally a resident of Mednapur.
Both Naba and Chhabi
were unemployed after marriage. Therefore, the newly wed couple returned to
Naba’s village Dhiasahi and from there moved to Biridi village. There, he met
some people who suggested that he take up a newspaper agency. The idea appealed
to him and apart from selling newspapers like Niakhunta, Durmukh and Nirbhika
through his agency, he and Chhabi Rani also made a foray into journalism. Naba
became a correspondent for the newly launched paper Pragati Badi. Chhabi Rani
became a correspondent for Durmukha paper, while he wrote for Pragatibadi,
Niakhunta and Nirbhika.
As a correspondent of
Pragatibadi, Naba Kishore used to send all the news in a truthful manner, and
in the process invited the wrath of the rich and influential of the area. The
landlord of the village, Raju Rao Dora was the wealthiest businessman of Biridi
area. He happened to be a moneylender too and he had in his coterie local
goondas and a lot of local politicians. Whoever in the area needed money,
borrowed from Raju Rao Dora.
Raju was essentially a black marketeer for cement, urea and
pilfered rations from controlled rate shops. Naba reported that Raju used to
mix ashes with cement. He also wrote about corruption at the Block office,
bungling in the distribution of rice meant for relief purposes and corruption
by the Block Development Officer. In the process, he invited the wrath of these
people and the goondas they sponsored.
Biridi village was then under the thumbs of two goondas
belonging to the Congress Party – Nanda Mohanty and Dibakar Nayak. Dibakar was
the president of the Biridi Congress while Nanda Mohanty was the Working
Secretary. These two were especially angry with the couple. However, the couple
refused to be cowed down and kept their honest, fearless reporting going.
The Fateful Day
Naba Kishore began his day early in the morning by
distributing daily papers in the village and wrote news reports in the
afternoon. The couple was soon blessed with a son whom they named Dani. Apart
from their professional work, they rarely ever socialized in the village. Thus
life went on till the fateful day of 3rd October 1980, which doomed their lives
to a perennial nightmare. As Naba disclosed in one of his interviews to a local
magazine: “Today, standing on the dust and ashes of those memories, I do not
even have the strength to look back”. On that day, both of them woke up very
early in the morning, earlier than usual, because they were to take the bus to
Cuttack at 6.30 am. Chhabi Rani had to go to Durmukh’s office to get her
identity card. She wore a yellow and red saree. They locked the house and left
for the market place, planning to have breakfast there. As they ordered
breakfast, they noticed five men of the village Naukul Behera, Baga Tanti, Kelu
Das, Madhab Tanti and Babaji Mania advancing towards them. Before they could
figure out what was happening, one of them shouted in a threatening voice that
before 7.30 a.m, they should meet Dibakar Nayak. Naba Kishore informed them that
he would meet Nayak in the evening as he was leaving for Cuttack. The men
threatened him that that would not do. Sensing from their gestures and
behaviour that something was seriously wrong, instead of proceeding to Cuttack,
the couple returned home instead. Hardly had they stepped inside the house when
the angry men again summoned them. Then Chhabi Rani asked them why if they had
such urgent work, could they not come and meet them instead? At this question,
the goondas were outraged and tried to force their way inside the house. But
they were blocked by Chhabi Rani with a kitchen knife and forced to retreat.
However, they soon returned with several others, including a local Congress
politician, Sudhir Parida and illicit liquor mafia don Bir Mania.
As Naba Kishore was
dragged outside and kicked and assaulted, Chhabi Rani was stripped of her gold
chain and earrings. At that time Nanda Mohanty reached there and asked the
goondas to take Naba Kishore to the local Congress office situated in the
market place.
Naba Kishore was beaten and dragged all the way to the local
Congress office. It was nine o’ clock in the morning when he was taken there
and asked to sit on a stool. Nanda Mohanty questioned him about his police
report about a robbery at their house in the month of September. The couple was
sleeping outside their house when a group of people barged into their house.
While one bashed up Naba Kishore, the others stole a leather suitcase from the
house. The next day Naba Kishore filed a First Information Report (F.I.R.) in
the local police station. The police arrested three people – Madhab Tanti,
Gudia Barik and Babaji Mania. Others had fled the scene. Local Congress leaders
got the arrested ones released on bail. But they all vowed revenge. Meanwhile,
Naba Kishore had reported the incident in the paper, which further outraged
them. In the Congress office, Naba Kishore was initially threatened, asked to
withdraw the theft case and warned that otherwise things would get dangerous
for him. Initially, Naba Kishore did not agree but later he acquiesced.
Following their instructions, Naba wrote that his theft allegation was false.
He also submitted that he was writing this of his own free will and not under
duress from anybody. But that hardly ended his nightmare as he was questioned
on a trumped up case about how he had cheated some money from village children.
Naba ordered him to return money he had never taken. As Naba Kishore stared in
absolute surprise at this false allegation, one of them remarked that his
wife’s earrings could be sold and the money recovered. As all this was
happening, people had crowded outside the office. They were asked to disperse.
As the people left, all Congress workers also left for lunch. The last one to
leave, Sudhir Parida, bolted the door from outside. Naba Kishore had no option
but to sit there tired, and famished till about 5.30 pm. When Dibakar arrived
he told Naba Kishore that if he wanted to remain alive he should leave Biridi
immediately or he would have to face dire consequences. Naba Kishore pleaded
with them to give them at least a night’s time because he was exhausted from
physical abuse and hunger. He promised to leave as soon as possible but Dibakar
simply reiterated that he should quit the place right away.
The Last Few Hours
Naba Kishore reached home to find Chhabi Rani anxiously
waiting for him. As Naba Kishore fell down on the cot in absolute exhaustion,
Dibakar came to their home and ordered them to leave the village immediately.
The couple realized that it was no longer possible to continue in Biridi
village and left immediately for his village Dhiasahi. They did not carry any
of their possessions and decided to return later to pick up their household
belongings. It was already seven in the evening. Naba Kishore walked ahead with
the infant in his arms with Chhabi Rani following. On the way to his village
they had to cross the Biluakhai river. There were two streams of the Biluakhai river
and in between a patch of sand. They washed their face, legs and hands in the
stream and after washing Chhabi Rani fed the child while Naba Kishore responded
to the call of nature. After resuming their journey they were just about to
cross the second stream when they noticed a group of men approaching them at a
rapid pace. As they tried to walk faster, because of hunger and exhaustion,
their strength failed them and their feet dragged. As the men got closer,
Chhabi Rani asked Naba to leave with the baby. Naba Kishore was not willing but
she forced him to leave saying otherwise the men would kill him. As the men
approached closer Naba took the child and hid in a bamboo bush. He had one
torch light with him. Naba Kishore noticed that hardly 20 feet from him they
had surrounded Chhabi Rani and three to four of them were hunting for him. Not
finding him they all returned to Chhabi Rani. Chhabi Rani’s agonized cry rent the
surrounding as she was surrounded by eight of them — Biramania, Babaji Mania,
Madhab Tanti, Baga Tanti, Surendra Barik, Kelu Charan Das, Raju Dora and
Dibakar Nayak. As Chhabi Rani tried to flee she fell down on the ground. Two of
them held her from two sides; the others opened her saree. As three to four of
them advanced towards Naba Kishore he fled the scene with the child in his arms
and reached Kukundara village. There he left his child with a friend and ran to
the village headman’s house. Within an hour, about five hundred people
gathered. By then it was about 10.30 in the night. All of them came with Naba
to the place where he had left Chhabi. Only to find her raped, mutilated dead
body lying on the sands on the banks of the river Biluakhai.
The Government
Response
Five kms away was
Anikhia post office. Borrowing a cycle from a friend Naba Kishore left for
Anikhia to call up the police post. It was then one o’clock in the night. The
second officer of the thana Bhagaban Mishra picked up the phone to assure them
that he would reach the spot soon. But nobody turned up. Naba Kishore waited
till morning and then left for Jagatsinghpur police station. Not finding
anybody, he left for the residence of the officer in-charge of the thana, R.K.
Prusty. Naba informed him about having called up the previous night and the OIC
asked him to return to the thana saying that he would follow immediately. Naba
Kishore reached the thana to find the Superintendent of Police sitting there in
civil clothes. The OIC Prusty and the SP examined the FIR and asked him to
delete the name of Nanda Mohanty. As Naba Kishore refused, the OIC tore up the
FIR in front of the SP. While all this was going on in Jagatsinghpur thana the
body of Chhabi Rani lay on the banks of Biluakhai river. It was lucky that
wolves did not prey on it as otherwise even a post-mortem would not have been
possible. The police dilly-dallied as much as they could. Finally, after 36
hours of the incident, the body was brought for post-mortem to Jagatsinghpur.
Dr. Kulamani Jena performed the post-mortem and finally at night the body was
handed over to Naba Kishore and last rites performed. By now, news of the rape
and murder had spread like wildfire and hundreds of angry people had gathered.
They burnt the house of Raju Dora to express their outrage. Seven days after
the funeral of Chhabi Rani. a Sub-Inspector of Madhupatna Thana, Kedar Jena
reached Naba Kishore’s house and informed him that the Superintendent of Police
had sent him to grant him security. He managed to reach the Pragatibadi office
but his agonies hardly ended there. There was a lot still in store for him.
The Pressure
Continues
On 29th October at
about 9.30 in the morning, as he was proceeding from Pragatibadi office towards
Rajmahal Square in a rickshaw, a black Ambassador screeched to a halt in front
of him. Apart from the driver, there were four people in the car. Before Naba
Kishore could realise what was happening, they had dragged him from the rikshaw
to the car and after threatening to kill him if he resisted, gagged his eyes
and mouth with black cloth. Naba Kishore had no idea of where the car
proceeded. The vehicle stopped after an hour. He was taken out of the car to a
house which seemed to be a lawyer’s house going by the law books on book
shelves. He was given a piece of paper to read in which was written that his
relationship with Nanda Mohanty was
quite good and Nanda Mohanty had no connection with the rape and murder of
Chhabi Rani, that he had not mentioned the name of Nanda Mohanty in the FIR.
The kidnappers also bought a tape recorder and on their instructions Naba
Kishore read out what was written in the paper. They also took his fingerprint
on a piece of paper apart from making him sign on another piece of plain paper.
He had no option but to follow their wishes. After everything was over he was
told that his wife was dead and would never return, so he should not pursue the
case and that he would be given Rs. 50,000 by way of reward. Later he was given
an injection on his left arm which gave him a severe headache. At about 8
o’clock in the night, he was again blind folded and thrown into the car and left
at a desolate spot in Acharya Vihar Square. Hungry and famished he had no
strength to even walk an inch. He took a rickshaw and reached the Lokdal
Party’s office in Forest Park. There he met Mr. Biju Patnaik and told him
everything. Naba Kishore then left for Pragatibadi office where the editor
Pradyumna Bal took him to Capital Hospital. His head was reeling and he was
passing blood in his urine. From Capital Hospital he was later shifted to
Cuttack Hospital where he was treated under police custody. For a month after
that he stayed in Madhupatna thana. Almost every evening, Deputy Inspector
General of Police, Mr. Bana Panda and Bhubaneswar Superintendent of Police Mr.
Bata Krushna Tripathy came to the thana and coax him to withdraw the case. Bata
Tripathy also offered him Rs. 50,000. He was asked to say that his wife was
insane and Biju Patnaik, Sarat Kar and Pratap Mohanty had tutored him to make a
false FIR. Direct threats coming from senior officers in uniform terrified Naba
Kishore. They took him to the Magistrate thinking that he would do as told. But
Naba Kishore spoke the truth. A few days after that the police arranged a press
conference for him in the State Guest House where he was surrounded by a lot of
police officers but Naba Kishore objected and they were forced to leave. And
Naba Kishore spoke to the press about police atrocities. After the press
conference he left for Pragatibadi office on the scooter of a journalist.
The Search for Justice
Three months after
that the Crime Branch took over the investigation of the case, under the
pressure of public opinion. While the long trial proceeded in the lower court,
Naba Kishore was also in the Crime Branch custody. The lower court orders went
against the accused. They went on appeal to the High Court. Horror of horrors,
the High Court acquitted all of them. All the accused were set free, Naba
Kishore felt defeated, shocked and completely demoralized. His wife had been
raped and killed in front of his eyes and yet the murderers, rapists went
absolutely scotfree. Naba Kishore spent over a lakh of rupees as litigation
expenses. His poor financial condition did not permit such high litigation
expenses. Biju Patnaik had given him forty five thousand rupees, the State
Government Rs. 4,000. He was also suitably rehabilitated by Biju Patnaik who
gave him a job in the Forest Corporation. Once after marriage Chhabi Rani and
Naba Kishore had gone on cycle to Konark. On the way the pallu of her saree got
caught in the bicycle chain. She had mended the tear. She was wearing the same
saree on the day she was raped and murdered. Naba Kishore identified the saree
in court from the tear – a relic of the glorious beginning of their marriage
which had a horrendous end. This was one of the critical pieces of evidence
which led to the conviction of Chhabi Rani’s murderers. Supreme Court’s
Indictment In a very sensitive judgement in April 2002, the Supreme Court of
the country convicted four of the accused in the Chhabi Rani rape and murder
case — 22 years after the gruesome incident and, more significantly, after the
High Court of Orissa had granted an acquittal to the accused. The verdict is
especially important because the Apex Court had thrown light on “how dragging
on court proceedings and sometimes the casual application of mind by some
learned judges can defeat the ends of justice”. The politician-police-criminal
nexus is one the people of this country are resigned to. But, if the nexus
includes the judiciary as well, it becomes a fatal combination. The historic
Supreme Court judgment has helped restore, to some extent, people’s faith in
the judiciary, shattered by the judgement of the High Court. Ever since the
murder of his wife, Naba Kishore has not stepped on Biridi soil. Today Naba
Kishore works as a Field Assistant in Berhampur Forest Corporation Office. He
remarried but fears for his life even today. Following the Supreme Court
judgement, the Orissa Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik took a decision to
provide support to late Chhabi Rani’s son Dani Mahapatra by providing him with
a suitable job.
Need for Remedial
Measures
The Chhabi Rani case indicates that it is high time that
serious lapses in the investigating and judicial setup are thoroughly examined
and prompt remedial measures taken so that dangerous criminals do not get away
due to various infirmities in the criminal justice system. As one goes through
the story, various confusing questions torment one’s mind. Did Naba Kishore do
right in leaving Chhabi Rani alone with the vicious criminals? Could he have
saved her if he had stayed back? Probably he would not have survived to tell
the story. The High Court judgement was undoubtedly a shame for the entire
judicial system. However, even after the Supreme Court’s intervention, the
horrible truth is that Nanda Mohanty and Dibakar Nayak, along with the two main
accused, have got away with their crimes. So also the policemen who manipulated
the investigation and offered bribes misusing the vicinity of the thana and the
strength of the police uniform. Also the politicians at the top who
masterminded the entire crime.
-
Anjana Mishra
