Keonjhar: A differently-abled elderly woman and her son were charred to death in a fire mishap that broke out in their house at Kalinga village under Hatadihi block in Keonjhar district late Wednesday night.
The police recovered the bodies Thursday morning. The deceased have been identified as Janjali Jena (70) and Banamali Jena (45). They were living in an abandoned Anganwadi centre.
While local people were clueless as to who killed the mother-son duo, police’s preliminary investigation suggests that they were set afire by some miscreants.
According to the police’s preliminary investigation, like any other day, they went to sleep after having their dinner Wednesday night. They woke up to some unusual sound in the dead of night. At that time, some miscreants had broken into a nearby shop. It was when they realized that the woman and her son had seen them enter the shop; they feared that the duo might inform the police.
They then locked the centre and set it on fire, resulting in the mother-son duo being charred to death.
Some local people could smell something burning inside the house and informed Nandipada police. The police recovered the bodies and seized them for post mortem.
The incident irked the local people who staged a road blockade on Salania- Orali road, demanding immediate arrest of the miscreants.
Further investigation is underway.
PNN
