TV
A family of nine has been forced to flee their native village after a Kangaroo court ruling in the Kendrapara district in 2025. This is at a time when we are dreaming of ‘Bikashita Gaon, Bikashita Odisha’. Despite approaching police and administration, the family continues to wander in search of justice and shelter.
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According to sources, even in 2025, justice remains elusive for some, as seen in a disturbing incident from Balia village under Pattamundai block in Kendrapara.
Alekha Nath, a resident running a small business in a makeshift stall on government land in front of his house, has been forced to leave his village along with his elderly parents and five daughters due to mob pressure and a verdict by a Kangaroo court.
The trouble began when villagers claimed the land where Alekha had set up his stall was reserved for building a temple, and they demanded it be vacated to construct the proposed shrine. When Alekha refused, the village convened an informal Kangaroo court, which ordered the demolition of Alekha’s stall and banishment of his family.
Despite police presence and functioning judiciary systems, no institutional help arrived. The villagers carried out the kangaroo court’s ‘verdict’, throwing Alekha's cabin (stall) into a pond and subjecting his family to severe harassment.
Eventually, Alekha and his family had no choice but to leave the village.
Local authorities were informed, but no action was taken. Even when the family staged a protest in front of Pattamundai Rural Police Station, their plea for justice was ignored. It is said that instead of receiving support, they were met with police mistreatment.
Alekha, now homeless, is seen roaming from door to door with his five daughters and ageing parents, surviving in desperate conditions. Their lives have been reduced to what he describes as “begging for justice”.
The silence of local elected representatives, police, and administration has been especially painful for the family.
This incident has raised serious questions about law and order in rural Odisha.
How, in a supposedly civilised society, could an entire family be punished for the alleged wrongdoing of one man, without any legal process?
The district administration has not issued any formal statement so far.
“Our house was ransacked, and my son and his family were attacked by the villagers. Fearing a threat to life, my son, along with his wife and five young daughters, fled from the village. Their whereabouts are still not known. We two elderly persons (the parents of Alekha) are wandering from here to there,” Alekha’s mother Janaki Nath said to OTV.
