BHUBANESWAR: Blood spilled on the roads of the State Capital after an 18-year-old was stabbed to death in full public glare at a fast food outlet near Press Square on Saturday exposing gaping holes in Commissionerate Police’s enforcement of law and order in the City.
The teenager, identified as Niranjan Parida, had gone to the busy commercial area with his friends for evening snack when he came under the attack. Shop-keepers alleged that one of the accused stabbed Niranjan to death using a knife which he was carrying.
Four of the accused who were present at the momo shop near the KTM bike showroom apparently attacked the youth and his friends following an argument. The miscreants fled the spot without any hindrance. While Niranjan lay in a pool of blood by the roadside, friends rushed him to a nearby private hospital in an ambulance. By the time police reached the crime scene, it was all over.
The incident which occurred around 6 pm has sent shockwaves in the City and has posed serious question marks on Commissionerate Police which is busy in slum outreach programmes. Despite night curfew in place, violent crimes have escalated in the capital in last one year pointing at criminals’ lack of fear of the police.
The city has reported at least 33 murders between January and December last year. Out of the total murder cases, police managed to close only 10 of them, with a meagre success rate of 30 per cent.
Today’s murder led to tremendous public outrage and demanding immediate arrest of the accused, residents of Gadakana blocked the road near Press Chhak. Three other youths suffered injury in the incident and one of them is in stated to be serious.
Police rushed to the spot and pacified the protestors by assuring them that the accused will be nabbed at the earliest. Police have detained one person in this connection.
“A probe has been launched to ascertain whether the murder was a fall-out of past enmity or committed over sudden provocation,” said a police officer. Parida was the only child of his parents and was studying BSc.