Khurda: Police have registered a case against seven persons of an organisation for allegedly brutally thrashing an old man and his son inside a house at Kadaba village in Odisha’s Khurda district.
Khurda SP Raj Kishore Dora said that the seven persons were identified from a viral video, which was uploaded about seven weeks ago, and the case was registered on a complaint lodged by the victim – Maguni Nayak of Manapur village and his son.
According to sources, a team of police led by the SP and additional SP of Khurda on Saturday went to Maguni’s house and took him to Begunia police station to collect the details of the incident.
Although Maguni could not recollect the exact date when the incident took place, he told the media that about 10-12 members of Manavbad Sangathan called him and his son around 10 am. Later they took them inside a room at Kadaba village and severely thrashed them after removing their clothes. “They threatened to beat me and my son to death for not cooperating with their organisation,” he said.
Maguni further said that the Sangathan members had thrashed him and his son before the alleged murder of Satyabrata Naik of Abhimanpur village.
It may be mentioned here that Satyabrata of Abhimanpur village was allegedly murdered on August 2 this year. To destroy the evidence, the assailants burnt the body inside a forest near the village. His family members later lodged a complaint at Begunia police station, alleging the involvement of some members of Manavbad Sangathan and their leader Swapneswar Nayak. They had also pointed accusing fingers at Manas Das, a senior lawyer of the High Court and the head of the Sangathan.
On the basis of the complaint, police had arrested six persons, including Swapneswar. Surprisingly, police did not arrest Manas Das as his name was not found in the FIR.
Sources in the locality said that Manavbadi Sangathan has started a campaign to include the tribals as members of their organisation in view of the ensuing panchayat elections. The tribals are reportedly being asked to cough up money as membership fees and threatened with dire consequences.
Protesting against the reign of terror unleashed by the Manavbad Sangathan and Manas Das, several organisations in the district had lodged a complaint with the SP earlier.
