Keonjhar: The father of a 30-year-old man, who was found hanging at his residence in Chingudipasi village under Jhumpura police limits here Thursday morning, alleged that police inaction led to the ‘murder’ of his son. Arun Kumar Mohanta was found hanging by a towel from the ceiling of his room in the morning. His father Baidyanath Mohanta alleged that Arun’s body bore multiple injury marks.
However, the police took the matter lightly and did not arrest the culprits, their neighbours. He alleged their neighbours murdered Arun and hung his body in order to pass it off as suicide. According to Baidyanath, his family had a running feud with their immediate neighbours who were in the habit of throwing garbage into their compound. He said Arun had lodged a police complaint over the issue.
However, instead of acting on it, the police hushed it up through mutual agreement between both parties. Subsequently, the differences cropped up again and Arun, along with his mother, was summoned to the police station on a complaint by the neighbours April 6. “The police never acted on the complaints we had lodged earlier. Instead of helping us, police always put us in trouble,” Baidyanath alleged, demanding stringent action against the killers of his only son. Meanwhile, tension erupted in the village following Arun’s death.
Irate villagers refused entry of the police to Arun’s house for over six hours. Later, the villagers were pacified after police registered a murder case (110/24) and detained two of the neighbours for questioning. The body was sent for post-mortem. Jhumpura police inspector in-charge (IIC) Sambhari Hansdah said the investigation started following the receipt of a complaint. While denying any lapses on the part of the police to act on Arun’s earlier complaint against the neighbours, the IIC said the matter was resolved following mutual understanding. “When we received another complaint, we lodged a case under Section 107 and carried out a necessary investigation,” Hansdah said.