Bhubaneswar: Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC) Tuesday directed the police and Angul district magistrate to conduct an inquiry into the human rights violation of a man by an alleged ‘kangaroo court’.
A petition filed by the victim, Dusmanta Sahu, with OHRC alleged that the villagers forced him to go around the village beating a gong as punishment.
In his complaint, Sahu alleged that his wife, Mallika Sahu, a member of Ward 8, Badakera grampanchayat in Angul district, was forced by ward president Jyoti Ranjan Acharya and his supporters to cast her vote in favour of their candidate. However, when Sahu’s wife refused to oblige, they ostracised the petitioner and his family members from the village.
In the village meeting held July 6, the gram panchayat president imposed a fine of `1 lakh on Mallika Sahu for her ‘disobedience.’ Alternatively, they were asked to admit their mistake before the entire village. Dusmanta accepted the diktat of the ‘kangaroo court’ and made a round of the village beating a gong to admit his ‘mistake’.
He later, lodged a complaint with Bantala police station, following which police registered a case against 52 persons, including the village head and secretary and charged them with holding an illegal kangaroo court and forcing Sahu to beat a gong as punishment.
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