Kolimati: Protesting against the murder of ex- block chairman, Ramchandra Behera, the Dhokotha market here remained closed for the third day Thursday.
Behera was murdered Monday night.
Notably, four youths had been to Behera’s house at 9 pm Monday. They held talks with him and had tea after which Behera went back home. The four again asked Behera to come out of the house to talk to other people waiting outside. As Behera stepped out of his house, around 15 people armed with sharp edged weapons attacked him all of a sudden. They chopped off his hands, hacked his legs and injured his back before decamping with his chopped palm. As Behera did not return home, his daughter Minarani Behera came out looking for him and found his father in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the Anandapur hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Ghasipura police recovered the severed hand from a pond near the Brahmani Devi Mutt in Badaektali village Wednesday.
It may be mentioned here that Behera, who was a frontline leader of the Congress party in Anandapur, contested the 2014 Assembly elections independently and had lost. He along with his 5,000 supporters was about to join the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) March 26.
PNN
