BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police may claim to have beefed up security in the state capital for the elections but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on crimes in the city.
In an incident that has yet again brought to fore the deteriorating law and order situation in the city, a youth was allegedly hacked to death by a few miscreants after he intervened in their attempt to attack his close friend late on Friday night in Chintamaniswar area here.
Sources said the victim, Anjan Behera and his friend Gautam Sahoo were returning home when they were stopped by at least six persons including a girl near Champa Pokhari after 1.30 am. Initial investigation reveals, the prime accused Kanha Pradhan alias Pinku of Unit-V was armed with a sharp weapon and attempted to attack Gautam as he was upset with him for speaking to his girlfriend Niharika. Sources said the girl, a Plus III third year student, was present on the spot when the incident took place.
Pinku attacked Anjan after he confronted him for trying to target Gautam. Anjan sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed. Sources said Anjan was a native of Chintamaniswar. He and Gautam were working as wedding caterers and were returning from Jatni on the fateful night.
The duo’s associates Deepak Pradhan and Bapi were following them in a multi-utility vehicle. On reaching the crime scene after a few minutes, Bapi noticed Anjan was lying on the road and he shifted him to a hospital. “All the accused have been identified and efforts are on to nab them. Investigation is on to ascertain whether the girl asked Gautam to meet her on any false pretext and she was part of her boyfriend’s plan,” said an officer of Laxmisagar police station.
Interestingly, the miscreants dared to attack the duo at a time when the police were carrying out ‘enforcement’ activities at Kalpana Square, just a few kilometres away from Chintamaniswar. There has been no let up in the murder cases in the capital city in the last four years. Bhubaneswar recorded 52 murder cases last year, 45 in 2022, 47 in 2021 and 49 in 2020.