Three persons were brutally killed and another was critically injured in a group clash on the outskirts of the city at Safipur under the Kandarpur police station, about 15 km from here, on Friday.
All the three deceased and the injured person belong to the Safipur, police said, adding that that injured Bijay Naik, who is now undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital here, has been arrested. The police are also on the lookout of two other accused, who escaped from the spot.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the clash was the fallout of a heated exchange of words between the warring factions on Thursday evening over certain land dispute,” said Cuttack city DCP Sanjiv Arora, who rushed to the spot soon after the incident. The deceased were identified as Deepak Ojha, Sandeep Beura and Sanjay Swain. All the three had criminal antecedents and cases were pending against them in the local police station and elsewhere, said a police source. Their bodies were lying near the house of Deepak Ojha in a pool of blood with multiple sharp injuries.
Arora said Bijay Naik is arrested in this connection and the weapon of offence, a blood-stained sword, was recovered from the spot. Seeing that the tempers were running high in the village, police deployment was made in the village, which is located close to the famous Paramhansa temple.