The murders triggered tension in the village, with people rising up in arms and demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits.
Post News Network
Khurda: Protests against illegal quarrying turned fatal for two siblings who were bludgeoned to death by the mining mafia at Kaipadar under Sadar police limits here Wednesday night.
The bodies of 42-year-old Bakari Samantsinghar and his brother 38-year-old Shweta Samantsinghar were found with their heads crushed with stones.
The murders triggered tension in the village, with people rising up in arms and demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits. Operations of crusher units and quarrying remained suspended in the area following the incident.
Police officials visited the spot with sniffer dogs and a forensic team and began a probe. A team led by a sub-divisional police officer is investigating into the matter.
Police have detained three persons in connection with the murder. However, the interrogation of the three failed to extract much information about the brutal murder, according to sources.
The post-mortems of the bodies was conducted at the district headquarters hospital, following which the bodies were handed over to the family members of the deceased.
The wives of the deceased, Shantilata and Saudamini, said their father-in-law owns land near Tangeni hills. Some stone mafia of Kaipadar were illegally quarrying granite on the land since November, they said. The two siblings had a brawl with the hooligans 10 days ago and though some villagers had tried to resolve the issue, their efforts were in vain, they said.
Three days ago, two members of the stone mafia, Bijay Arisal and Hemant Sahu, had threatened to eliminate the two brothers, the widows alleged.
“Our driver Kedar Srichandan informed us that a group of 10-20 people were beating the two brothers. When we reached the spot, we saw them lying in a pool of blood. Even the 108 ambulance refused to take them to hospital,” Shantilata alleged. The widow alleged that Bijay Arisal, Hemant Sahu, Pradeep Routray, Shankar Arisil, Bauri Arisil, Gandu Arisal, Pravat Routray, Prasanna Routray, Bangali Balabantray, Tingali Balabantray, Tuna Balabantray, Negda, Arjun Jujhar Singh and 10 other stone mafia members were behind the attack.
A case has been registered under Sections 302 and 34 of IPC the basis of a complaint of lodged by Shantilata and investigation is on, Sadar police station inspector-in-charge Anadi Sethi said.
