Nayagarh: A village kangaroo court allegedly ostraciced a man and his family members after he dared to lodge a complaint of assault against some villagers with the Itamati police station in this district, a report said Tuesday.
The victim was identified as Surendra Kumar Das of Derasahi in Lathipada village under Itamati police limits.
The villagers have snapped all relations with Surendra and his family members and have kept him from all activities in the village. They are learnt to have threatened him of dire consequences if he opposes their diktat.
However, his ordeal did not end here as some villagers have made his life miserable by throwing rotten tomatoes, soiled leaf plates, human excreta, cow dung and other wastes into his house to avenge his lodging a complaint against them at the police station.
The matter came to the fore after Surendra’s mother-in-law Pramila Parmanik lodged a fresh complaint with the Itamati police station against Bhubaneswar Behera, Murali Moharana and Arjun Behera demanding justice for her son-in-law and his family members Tuesday.
The incident has sparked shockwaves in the area and drew flak from various quarters with people demanding stringent actions against the perpetrators of such inhuman act.
According to the complaint, a villager called Manas Kumar Sahoo in Derasahi had expanded the chajja (canopy) of his under-construction house over the road – much beyond the permissible limits.
Local villagers went to his house and asked him to raze the extended part of the chajja February 25. He, however, refused to listen to them, which led to a heated brawl between him and the villagers.
Later, the villager asked the labourer Padia Swain to stop working for Sahoo the next day.
A meeting was called on the same evening where both sides had heated exchange of words over the issue and one villager named Bhubaneswar Behera tried to beat Padia. Surendra intervened between them and saved Padia from being assaulted.
Enraged, Bhubaneswar and his brother Baikuntha turned their ire against Surendra and assaulted him. Deeply hurt, Surendra demanded justice and urged the villagers to convene a meeting again to discuss the issue.
However, the villagers refused to listen to him following which he went to the police station and lodged a complaint.
The move sparked anger and resentment among the villagers and they ostracized him from the village. They even prevented him from holding a ‘Sankritan’ in front of his house on his mother’s death anniversary May 16.
Meanwhile, their attack on Surendra has crossed all limits with some villagers throwing soiled plates after attending a feast, human excreta, rotten tomatoes, cow dung into his house.
When contacted, Subhalakshmi Pradhan, sarpanch of Lathipada panchayat, said that attempts are being made to resolve the dispute. Itamati IIC Saroj Kumar Sahoo said that a probe into the matter is underway after the registration of the case.
PNN
