Basta: Hundreds of women Thursday gheraoed the Basta police station in Balasore district protesting a recent attack on some women by bootleggers and liquor traders at Gandhi Chhak.
The agitating women alleged bootleggers, the police and excise officials were working in cahoots pushing liquor trade in the area.
The protest was led by Jyotsna Mohanty. The agitators alleged that on Gandhi Jayanti they had warned the bootleggers against selling liquor during Durga Puja, but the sale was not stopped. As some women reached the Gandhi Chhak to stop it, a liquor trader along with his kin abused and attacked the former, the agitators said.
They lamented that though they had informed the local police and excise officials, the latter did not turn up.
A woman activist Subhadra Rout was critically injured in the attack and first admitted to Basta hospital and then to the district headquarters hospital.
The women strongly condemned the ‘apathy’ of the police and excise officials in this regard and demanded the immediate transfer of Basta IIC Dhaneswar Sahu.
PNN
