Four-year-old girl freed after 50 days in jail

A four-year-old girl who languished for about 50 days in an Orissa jail was freed on Friday, jail officials said. Her father and grandparents had been charged with her mother's death and kept in jail, so she had nowhere else to go.

Kandhai Sahoo was lodged in the sub jail at Pattamundai in Kendrapada district, some 150 km from here, along with her father Trilochan, grandfather Haladhar and grandmother Sabitri on Oct 1.

According to the police, the girl's mother Sulochana, 25, died in a fire at her village Bachhara Sep 29.

Police arrested Trilochan and his parents after Sulochana's mother Sebati Prusti lodged a complaint that her daughter was allegedly murdered by her husband and in-laws.

Police arrested Trilochan and his parents from their house and produced them in the court where the magistrate rejected their bail applications and remanded them in judicial custody.

As Kandhai was left alone in the house after the arrest of her father and grandparents, the police also lodged her in the same jail.

The movement of the minor girl was restricted in the jail and like other inmates she used to eat the food given to other prisoners and sleep on the ground.

"She was spending most of her time with her grandmother," jail official Chinmaya Patra said.

The girl was handed over to Sebati Prusti, her maternal grandmother, Friday morning on the basis of a court direction, Patra said.