Bhubaneswar: An irate mob, including students of a local college, set ablaze a scooter belonging to a trans-gender following a clash in Khandagiri area here late Sunday evening.
According to eyewitness account, some transgenders had allegedly snatched away a motorcycle from two students after assaulting them at the OTDC parking near Khandagiri.
The students sustained severe injuries in the assault following which they called up their friends who came on around 50 motorbikes from the college.
Some locals who were present in the area also rushed to the injured students’ help. The irate mob then burnt the scooter of a transgender.
While most of the transgenders fled the spot, locals managed to catch four of them and handed them over to the police after beating them up severely. They have been identified as Aridulla, Damayanti Pradhan, Kangana Karan and Prakash Sahoo.
The DC of Khandagiri Police Station said no one had lodged a report in connection with the incident. “We will lodge an FIR suo motu,” he said.
The villagers alleged that transgenders have been harassing the commuters in the locality every day. It has become so regular that people are scared even to pass through the area. They demanded that the group be driven away from the place.
The locals are even contemplating to stage a bigger protest in the near future against alleged atrocities by them.
Some members from the transgender community had dragged a Naga sadhu on the road in Ghatikia area here June 14 this year. They stripped and thrashed him till police came to his rescue.