Five Cops Injured In Attack By Irate Villagers In Khurda

Khurda: Five policemen, including an officer, were injured after they were attacked by a group of people of Panchala village under Balianta block in Odisha’s Khurda district on Saturday night.

Sources said there was a long-standing dispute among three families in the village over the construction of a road on a private plot in the village.

Acting on a complaint, IIC of Balianta Police Station Sudhir Das visited the village on Saturday morning. He again went there in the evening with some policemen in a van. As police tried to take some people to the police station, a heated argument ensued between Das and members of the three families and their supporters. The incident turned violent as some of the irate villagers attacked the police with sticks. Five policemen, including Das and a home guard, were injured.

The villagers detained the cops for about two hours.

An additional police party reached the village and rescued the injured policemen. Das, who sustained severe head injuries, was admitted to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

One platoon of police force has been deployed in the village to ward off any untoward incident. Police has registered a case and efforts are on to arrest the absconding villagers involved in the attack, police sources said.