Four platoons of police personnel have been deployed at Baunsabeda near Telegan under Umarkote block in Nabarangpur district following a bloody clash on Saturday evening in which two persons were killed and another was severely injured over the issue of farming on forestland.
According to reports, the Forest Department had allowed the villagers to do farming activities on some patch of land. One Baliram Das of the village had forcibly acquired a portion of the land and was doing cultivation on it. However, a section of the villagers was opposing Baliram’s activities as he had migrated to the village.
Some villagers had planted saplings on the portion of land being cultivated by Baliram. But Baliram allegedly uprooted them.
Following this, a village meeting was called on Saturday evening to sort out the issue. However, Baliram did not turn up, after which Phagunu Bhatra and Gurubaru Bhatra were asked to call him from his house. When the duo reached Baliram’s house, he attacked them with a sharp weapon killing Phagunu on the spot and grievously injuring Gurubaru.
When the news spread, the incensed villagers armed with traditional weapons reached the spot and lynched Baliram. The assailants drained petrol from an auto-rickshaw and a two-wheeler parked outside Baliram’s house and poured it on the house and set it ablaze.
“One person died in the clash. In the retaliation by villagers, one Baliram Das alias Harijan belonging to the scheduled caste community has been killed. The injured have been shifted to hospital. The bodies have been shifted and we are investigating into the matter. Meanwhile, four platoons of police personnel have been deployed in the village. Extra forces are being mobilised from outside the district anticipating trouble,” Nabarangpur SP Himanshu Sekhar Mishra reportedly said.
“No arrests have been made so far as the names of the accused are being ascertained,” he added.