BHUBANESWAR: A 32-year-old man was shot dead by miscreants at Badapokharia village within Jankia police limits in Khurda on Friday morning.
The man, identified as Chitrasen Jena of Badapokharia, was an activist of a national political party.
Sources said a rivalry between two groups of the village, which aggravated after the recently held panchayat polls, led to Jena’s death. The situation at Badapokharia, which is infamous for violent clashes between the two groups for the last one decade, remained tense as locals did not allow police to seize the body. Soon after the news of Jena’s death spread, a group of villagers set a farmhouse on fire.
Around 6.30 pm, more than 2000 villagers of Badapokharia blocked National Highway 16 for an hour demanding immediate arrest of the persons involved in the murder. Senior officials of Khurda district and police administration reached the spot and pacified the agitators. According to eyewitnesses, Jena was intercepted by two bike-borne miscreants when he went to the village pond to take bath. They fired two shots at him from point blank range and Jena slumped to the ground.
Two men who were ploughing the fields nearby raised an alarm after which the villagers reached the place of crime. Jankia police and a forensic team reached the spot and recovered a few empty cartridges. However, the cops were not allowed to take custody of the body. Four days back, there was a violent clash between the warring factions in which a youth was brutally hacked.
The youth, who owes allegiance to Jena’s rival group, is still undergoing treatment at Capital Hospital in the City. “Following this incident, accomplices of the injured youth nursed a grudge against the rival group and were plotting an attack,” a police official said. Jankia police registered a murder case against two unidentified persons and further investigation is on. Heavy police force has been deployed in the village.