'Man who molested minor girl should be shot dead'

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena courted a controversy today with his remarks that as an individual he would say the man who had molested a three-year-old girl at a government hospital in Sambalpur should be “shot dead”. The minor girl was molested in the hospital premises on Tuesday and the accused, a security guard, was arrested yesterday.

“Had I been asked to comment not as a minister, I would have said that he (the accused) should be shot dead,” Jena told reporters here. Jena said that the hospital authorities terminated the agreement with the security agency through which the guard was appointed at the hospital.

According to the minister, the government has also warned other outsourcing agencies that if any of their employees was involved in such incidents anywhere in the future, the agency concerned will be held responsible.

Sambalpur Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Arora said the security guard was arrested after the examination of CCTV footage at the hospital in which it was seen that the girl had gone with him. The girl’s family had lodged a complaint at the Sambalpur Town police station, on the basis of which a case was registered.

Sambalpur Chief District Medical Officer K K Gupta said the security guards of the agency would remain deployed at the hospital till the completion of a new tender process.