BALASORE: Jaleswar police on Thursday arrested 72 people from Rajnagar Patana village for allegedly confining and assaulting two West Bengal officials, deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, over child theft rumours.
The incident occurred on Wednesday (February 25) when the two officials entered Odisha territory by mistake. Suspicious of their presence, villagers mistook the duo for child abductors. They allegedly manhandled the officials and confined them.
On receiving information, police along with Jaleswar tehsildar Satyajit Mohanty reached the village to rescue the officials. However, the villagers detained the police personnel and the tehsildar as well.
Later, Balasore additional SP Niranjan Behera rushed to the spot with two platoons of police force. Subsequently, the detained officials rescued from the clutches of the villagers.
The two officials later filed a complaint in the local police station, stating that despite showing their official documents and identity proof related to the survey, the villagers did not release them.
On Wednesday evening, a joint police team from Jaleswar and Basta conducted a raid in the village and picked up more than 100 men and women for questioning. Among them was a minor, who is currently appearing for the Matriculation examination.
Following verification of video footage and other evidence, police arrested 72 villagers for their alleged involvement in incident. Separate cases have been registered in Jaleswar police station, one regarding confinement of the survey officials and two others related to the detention of police personnel.
Jaleswar IIC Ashok Barik said the arrested persons were produced in court and further investigation is underway.