Six cows were killed and two others were seriously injured when an unidentified pick-up van dashed into the bovines near Kandhaberani on the Cuttack-Narsinghpur main road on Sunday evening. The irate villagers blockaded the Cuttack-Narsinghpur main road near Kandhabereni in protest, demanding arrest of the van driver, compensation to the victims who lost their animals and construction of humps. According to sources, the pick-up van struck the cows at around 7pm on Sunday evening near Gai Paul Kandhabereni and fled the spot soon.
The owners of the dead cows are Balbhadra Behera, Sahadev Behera and Niranjan Dehuri, while one each cow of Niranjan Dehuri and Kalia Khatua were seriously injured. The roadblock was lifted after Kanpur police and local Tehsildar Alok Ranjan Dehuri reached the spot and held talks with the protesters.