The NHRC said it “has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that a 17-year-old tribal girl from Kankadahada area of Dhenkanal district, Odisha, was trafficked, sold and repeatedly sexually assaulted for about two years in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh”.
The Commission has noted that the content of the news, if true, raises serious issues of human rights violations.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to the directors general of police of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, and the district magistrate of Dhenkanal, seeking a detailed report on it within two weeks.
It is expected to include the status of the investigation and steps taken to provide relief and rehabilitation to the victim, the rights panel said.
According to the media report, broadcast on May 29, the victim is suspected to have been locked in a house for almost three months and was repeatedly subjected to sexual assaults there.
It is further suspected that when the victim became pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion without her consent.
“She was then allegedly sold to another person for Rs 50,000 and repeatedly sexually assaulted by several others for almost two years before she managed to escape,” the statement said.
