Daringbadi: Tension prevailed here after police recovered the body of a watchman hanging from a tree at Hill View Park Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Bisikeshan Behera, a resident of Sraniketa village under this block in Kandhamal district.
According to police, Behera, who worked as a night watchman for the last few years, was recently given the additional charge of selling tickets to visitors.
Preliminary police investigation suggested that Behera was murdered and his body was hanged to give the incident a colour of suicide.
The matter came to fore after his son Rajendra spotted the body and alerted the police. Police registered a case of murder over a complaint lodged by Rajendra and launched a manhunt to nab the accused.
“Rajendra has named some suspects in his complaint and we are probing the matter,” IIC Kamal Lochan Behera said.
Meanwhile, the police detained a few suspects for interrogation.
Irate family members of the deceased along with hundreds of residents staged a blockade on National Highway-59 for four hours by placing the body on the road. Vehicular movement on the highway was badly affected by the agitation.
The agitators demanded immediate arrest of the accused, job to the next of Behera’s kin and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the bereaved family.
IIC Behera, tehsildar Dayanidhi Rath, assistant sub-inspector R Bhimarao Reddy, block chairperson Susant Kumar Pradhan, sub-collector Suranjan Pradhan and block development officer Baranendu Mohanty pacified the angry mob and sent the body for post-mortem.
The agitation was called off after the administration assured Rs 10,000 from the District Red Cross Fund to the bereaved family. The officials also agreed to the other demands of the agitators. PNN
