Balasore: Two days after a youth was thrashed to death on theft suspicion, in-charge of the nearby Sartha police outpost in Odisha’s Balasore district, Chandrashekhar Mohanty, was suspended on Wednesday for alleged dereliction of duty.
The incident took place on Monday about 500 metres from the police outpost. The deceased was identified as Trilochan Pradhan (32).
The sequence of events that led to Trilochan’s death began with a theft at a garment shop at Sartha village under Singla tehsil a few days ago. Upset over alleged police inaction in the case, the owner of the shop, Ajay Das, along with his family members picked up Trilochan and three others – Satish Singh (35), Tapua Mahanti (31) and Tapan Pradhan (19) on Monday morning, suspecting their involvement in the theft. They then tied the four to an electric pole at Odishala Square and thrashed them with iron rods and sticks.
It is being alleged that Mohanty ignored the pleas of the victims’ family members, who approached him for help.
Trilochan later died on the spot while the other three with critical injuries were hospitalised. A video of the spine-chilling incident also went viral on the social media.
On December 22, the accused were arrested and forwarded to court.
