Rape victim on fast to demand arrest of third accused

Anjana Mishra, the estranged wife of an Indian Forest Service officer who was brutally raped by three men four years ago on the outskirts of the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, is staging an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Central Bureau of Investigation's office in the city demanding the arrested of the third accused in the case.

Two of her rapists, Padia Sahu and Tunia Mohanty, were sentenced to life imprisonment on April 29, 2002. But the third accused, Biban Biswal, has been absconding since the incident.

"I feel disappointed and demoralized," Mishra told rediff.com "Unless he is arrested, the main conspirator in the case will continue to hide."

Mishra (34), a mother of two, was raped at Barang on January 9, 1999, when she was on her way to Cuttack with a journalist friend Sutanu Guru to meet her lawyer. The case was handed over to the CBI on the order of the Orissa high court after Mishra accused the state's then advocate general, Indrajit Ray, of also trying to rape her.