For the people of Malkangiri town, the New Year started with a bad note as a peon of Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir hacked one of the teachers to death after a minor squabble on Sunday.
The deceased has been identified as Nirakar Sethi while the accused peon is Naresh Kshatriya.
According to police, Nirakar and Naresh were at the school when they entered into a verbal duel over some issues. The scene turned ugly when Naresh lost his cool. He reached out for an axe and attacked Nirakar, leaving him seriously injured.
Fellow teachers rescued a profusely bleeding Nirakar and immediately rushed him to the Malkangiri district headquarters hospital (DHH). But it was too late by the time they reached the hospital. The doctors there declared him received dead.
On being informed, police seized the body and later handed it over to the family members after postmortem. Meanwhile, registering a case, the police have launched an investigation. They have detained peon Naresh for interrogation.
The incident has become the talk of the town.
(Reported by Jitendra Beura from Malkangiri, OTV)