Balasore: In yet another incident of post-poll violence, a man was beaten to death at Badajaipur village under Khaira block of Balasore district Wednesday night.
The deceased was identified as Upendra Sethi, 65. The incident sparked tension in the area as Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders traded charges against each other over the death. BJP leaders alleged that some BJD workers dragged Upendra out of his betel shop and beat him to death over the recently concluded panchayat polls. Family members rushed Sethi to a nearby hospital but doctors declared him dead on arrival.
The BJP workers led by former MLA and minister Padmalochan Panda Thursday staged a demonstration outside Simulia police station demanding arrest of the culprits.
They relented after Simulia IIC Jayant Kumar Behera and sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Padarbinda Tripathy assured to take action against the culprits
Simulia police sent the body for post-mortem and registered a case against six persons over a complaint filed by the deceased’s son Raju Prasad Sethi. An investigation was launched to nab the culprits. BJD leaders, however, rejected the charges terming it as an attempt to malign the ruling party image.
