Locals detain Excise police over serving of notice in Odisha’s Bhadrak

Excise police personnel faced a challenging situation and were detained for hours together on Sunday in Kazimahala locality in Bhadrak district, when their attempt to deliver a legal notice was met with resistance by the residents.

The personnel had arrived at Shaikh Tabrez's residence in Helasahi under Old Bazaar police limits, when the incident occurred.

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Allegedly, while carrying out their duties, some personnel entered the residence and used their personal mobile phones to take photographs of women in the household. This action incited anger among the locals, who detained them for several hours in protest.

On being informed, staff from the Old Bazaar police station later intervened, negotiating with the local community for the release of the detained Excise police personnel.

After around two hours of dialogue, the Excise personnel were eventually released.

“We were putting up a Latka (a legal notice) for appearance of the accused person, which is scheduled on Monday. When we tried to take a photo of the notice, some members of the family started scolding us. They also detained us,” a cop of the team said.

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While the Excise Department has dismissed the allegations as misleading, representatives of Tabrez’s family have accused the officers of acting in an arbitrary manner.

“Instead of sending a single person to the job, a team of several policemen had come to our house. They enquired about Tabrez, who was not present at home at that time. Female members of our family were taking bath and changing clothes. We opposed when they entered the house and took photo inside,” a relative of Tabrez expressed.