Odisha Congress MLA says quitting as MLA

Congress leader Krushna Chandra Sagaria on Tuesday said he would resign from the membership of the Odisha Assembly for failing to ensure justice to a gangrape victim.

He represents Koraput Assembly constituency.

Sagaria said he has no moral right of holding the position as he has failed to get justice for a gangrape victim who committed suicide earlier this year.

"I feel I have failed to provide justice to the victim girl. If I am unable to give justice to a poor dalit girl using the constitutional post, I have no moral rights of holding the position anymore," Sagaria said in the state capital.

Sagaria said even after a year, not a single accused has been arrested in the case.

The Kunduli victim was gang-raped while returning home from a market under Pottangi police limits in Koraput district in October last year. She committed suicide at her house on January 22 citing police inaction in the rape case.

Sagaria was not happy with the Congress state leadership after he was removed from the chairmanship of the Scheduled Caste Cell of the party. Even though he was appointed as a general secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC), Sagaria refused to accept it.-IANS