Bhubaneswar: One platoon of armed police has been deployed at Rangamatia near Mancheswar here after an eatery owner was hacked to death on Tuesday night. Police suspect the murder to be the fall out of an enmity between two groups of villagers.
Police said the victim, Dipak Behera alias Landa, was a resident of Tala Sahi at Rangamatia and owned an eatery near Sahu complex. On Tuesday night, three assailants accosted him while he was going home. They thrashed Dispak and later hacked him with sharp weapons. They then escaped.
Some locals rushed a profusely bleeding Dipak to a private hospital at Chandrasekharpur, but he succumbed on the way.
Later, Mancheswar police went to the village to investigate. They have sent the body to Capital Hospital for postmortem and said efforts are on to nab the assailants.
According to police, there was a long-standing feud between the residents of Tala Sahi and Upara Sahi at the village. Recently, Dipak and his group had attacked one Tikana Pradhan of Upara Sahi area during a marriage feast. Police had also arrested a person in this regard. On the other hand, Upara Sahi youths were waiting for an opportunity to avenge the attack.
According to locals, the two groups had an altercation last week.
