Post News Network
Talcher, Feb 26: Tension ran high in the coal region here after miscreants kidnapped a youth at gunpoint and later dumped him outside a temple in critical condition resulting in his death Wednesday night, police said Thursday.
The victim was identified as Raju Sharma (27) of Deulabeda Dhauda in the area. The incident triggered
widespread tension in the area as family members and locals put up his body outside the plant gate of Lingaraj coal mines demanding arrest of the culprits and adequate compensation for the
bereaved family.
The stir by the locals brought coal extraction and transportation in the mines to a complete halt.
Police rushed to the spot and tried to placate the irate residents but they
insisted on fulfillment of their demands first before withdrawing their stir. Preliminary inquiries by police revealed that the murder might have taken place over past enmity or over sharing of money as the body bore severe injury marks. The incident occurred when Raju and two of his friends were
standing outside the Time office of the Lingaraj coalmines at about 10pm.
Suddenly, five youths in a car stopped near them and before anybody could
realise, one of them got down and
covered Raju’s face with a napkin.
Two of them pulled him inside the car while another sitting in front got down and made blank fires to drive away his friends. They beat him up black and blue and escaped carrying him in the car. Later, after a few hours Raju was found dumped in a critical condition outside a Shiva temple in Balunga.
He was rushed to the local hospital where doctors after primary treatment advised to shift him to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Raju, however, succumbed on the way before reaching the hospital in Cuttack. Meanwhile, police registered a case and detained a youth Bhagwan Sahoo in this connection.