Puri: Delang area of Odisha’s Puri district witnessed protests on Sunday over the disappearance of an 11-year-old boy from his home on April 15.
Irked over alleged police inaction with the boy remaining untraceable even after five days, family members of the missing boy and locals staged a demonstration outside the Delang police outpost and blocked roads by burning tyres.
On April 15, Ashirbad Sahu, a Class VI student of Ratanpur village, returned home at 6 pm after picking his 8-year-old sister from her tutor’s residence. He, however, was nowhere to be found when his mother went to give him evening snacks fifteen minutes later.
The complaint filed by his uncle, Somanath Sahoo, mentions that he was last seen at around 6.15 pm. His father, Manas Kumar Sahoo, who runs a small shop in Delang market, suspects that his son was abducted.
Police, however, have denied negligence. While multiple teams have been formed to trace the boy, fire service personnel also searched nearby ponds and rivers between Wednesday and Saturday.
Puri SP Vinit Agrawal met the boy’s family, promised swift action “We are not leaving any stone unturned. Our teams are making sincere efforts. I am personally monitoring the investigation,” he told the media.
Meanwhile, former Pipili MLA Rudra Pratap Maharathy also extended support to the family and assured them of a Crime Branch investigation into the matter.
