JAJPUR: Mangalpur police on Sunday arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly attacking a woman sarpanch and her husband in Jajpur’s Dasarathapur block. Police identified the accused as Asish Mahala. Asish’s elder brother Subash Mahala, who is the main accused, is absconding.
Sources said on Thursday night, Chasakhand sarpanch Pratibha Mallik and her husband Ranjan were returning home from Dasarathapur block office on a motorcycle. Subash, who happens to be the husband of former sarpanch Manorama Mohanty, and Asish stopped their motorcycle near Manikei chowk and assaulted them. The accused siblings fled the scene leaving Pratibha and her husband critically injured.
On being informed, Mangalpur police reached the spot and rushed the injured duo to the local community health centre (CHC). They were shifted to the district headquarters hospital and later to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after their condition deteriorated.
Police said the attack was a fallout of the political rivalry between the families of Pratibha and the former sarpanch. “The assault took place as the former sarpanch’s husband was opposed to the laying of pipeline in the panchayat under Basudha scheme,” said a police official.
Police have launched a manhunt to nab the prime accused who has fled the village after the incident, he added.