Berhampur: A day after six policemen including Patapur IIC Ramesh Pradhan and ASI PK Patnaik were injured in a minor offensive against them by a crowd near Gobindpur Chhack in Ganjam district, more than 500 residents of five villages have been booked under provisions like ‘attempt to murder’.
The ‘attack’ on cops took place Tuesday when they were trying to remove a road blockade put up by the locals. Police allegedly turned violent and lathi-charged the locals and some among the crowd hit back by pelting stones at the cops.
Trouble originally started after a trucker driver of the locality was robbed on the Highway near the villages. The cashew-laden truck and its driver were attacked and robbed by a gang at Taptapani Ghati here Monday night. As the news spread, hundreds of residents from the nearby villages staged a blockade on the Gobindapur-Jakarapali road and demanded arrest of the gangsters.
A police team led by IIC Pradhan reached the spot and tried to lift the blockade. Locals say that instead of arresting the gangsters, the police tried to remove the blockade by force. Cops resorted to a mild lathi-charge in which six persons were injured. Irritated over this, some villagers pelted stones at the cops.
After this, Berhampur sub-collector Siddharth Shankar Swain and SP Brijesh Kumar Rai reached the spot along with a magistrate and pacified the mob. Two platoons of police were deployed at T Gobindapur to maintain law and order.
A day after the clash, the police booked the villagers on a whimsical charge of “attempt to murder”. The residents accused the police of highhandedness and warned of a mass agitation if cops did not behave.
PNN