BHUBANESWAR: Villagers of Arolapattana village under Chandanpur police limits in Puri district blocked a road for several hours on Saturday after a villager drowned to death in a pond on Friday night. He has been identified as Naba Pradhan.
Sources said Pradhan slipped and fell into a pond where he had gone to fetch water to extinguish fire which had engulfed a villager, Rabi Jena’s house. “The body was retrieved from the pond after some hours by locals,” Chandanpur IIC Girija Nandan Patnaik said, adding that they have registered an unnatural death case.
Locals staged a protest on Saturday morning with the body and demanded adequate compensation for the kin of the deceased. Police rushed to the spot and dispersed the protestors after assuring to look into their demands.
Meanwhile, Jena’s daughter lodged a complaint with Chandanpur police alleging that she was being forced by a man to dance for an orchestra even after she quit that job.
“The girl has lodged a complaint that a man was forcing her to dance for an orchestra and as she denied, he set their house on fire,” Puri SP Sarthak Sarangi said.