The Nayagarh police on Sunday arrested two persons and launched a manhunt for others who threatened a schoolteacher that he must commit suicide after subjecting him to inhuman treatment and humiliation at a kangaroo court on October 17 at Balarampur village under the Itamati police station.
The matter came to fore after the prime accused Baridhar Nayak’s son videographed the entire episode in his mobile phone and uploaded in various social networking sites.
Police arrested Mayadhar Pradhan and Sanjay Pradhan while the prime accused Nayak is on the run, said Itamati police station IIC Saroj Kumar Sahu.
According to police, the victim teacher Sridhar Nayak’s nephew, who is working at the Patachandi Prasad Project Primary School, had an altercation with one Biranchi Kumar Pradhan from Bijipur village on October 17. However, Sridhar managed to solve the issue. later, Biranchi along with some fellow villagers came to the teacher’s house and hurled abuses. Following this, Sridhar had filed a written complaint at the Itamati police station.
However, Jagannath Nayak, husband of the Baunsiapada sarpanch, and Jogendranath Swain allegedly persuaded the teacher not to file a police complaint and managed to take him from the police station to Balarampur on the pretext of an amicable solution to the dispute.
Village secretary and head of kangaroo court Baridhar Nayak, Mayadhar Nayak and others took Sridhar to the middle of the village and tied his limbs.
later, the kangaroo court made him pass between the legs of Mayadhar Nayak while kneeling on the ground on the instructions of Baridhar.
“The villagers present at the kangaroo court asked me to beg apology. When I did accordingly, they asked me to pass in between the legs of the village president. As I was helpless and they had weapons in possession, I obeyed the order. Otherwise, they would not have let me go safely from the kangaroo court,” said the victim teacher Sridhar.