Kendrapara: A youth was allegedly stripped and thrashed by a panchayat sarpanch in full public view during a 'Kangaroo court' trial at Talachua village under Rajnagar block in the district.
The incident came to light after video of the act was made viral. "Although no FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident, we have detained two persons, "informed Talachua Marine police station Inspector-in-charge (IIC).
The youth hailing from the Rangani village has been admitted to the Kendrapara hospital with critical injuries, informed sources.
Meanwhile, protesting the attack, villagers of Rangani burnt tyres in front of the house of the Talachua sarpanch, Niranjan Behera.
According to reports, the youth was in a relationship with a girl from Talachua village.
After the matter came to fore, residents of the village arranged a ‘sabha’ under the sarpanch. Behera reportedly ordered the villagers to strip off the youth’s clothes and later thrashed him.
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“The villagers nabbed me from a market place and took me to the sabha. They stripped me off and thrashed me. They also filmed a video and made it viral,” alleged the youth adding that Hiralal Mundul, Biswajit Das, Shanti Debnath, Mayadhar Behura and Jhuna Sahoo were among the attackers.
On the other hand, Behera refuted the allegation saying that he was not present during the incident.