In a tragic incident, a 60-year-old Dalit man, Narahari Mallik, died after a finance company’s employees allegedly kicked at his belly for not depositing the interest of a loan in Jajpur district on Thursday.
According to reports, Narahari’s daughter-in-law Rekha Mallik of Salapada village under the Bairi police limits in the district had borrowed a loan from the Annapurna Finance Company at Chandikhol for her SHG.
On Thursday, five employees of the company arrived at Narahari’s house to collect the last premium of Rs 1,200, including an interest of Rs 200.
Rekha deposited Rs 1,000 while Narahari requested the company staffs to allow her to deposit the remaining Rs 200 on Friday. This led to a heated exchange of words between them during which a company employee allegedly kicked at his belly. Narahari fell down and died at the spot.
Taking the advantage of darkness, the accused along with his two managed to flee the spot, but two employees identified as Jyoti Ranjan Giri of Nayagarh and Sanjay Kumar Mangaral of Khordha were overpowered by irate villagers and tied them in a house. Police reached the spot and rescued the two.
The police faced stiff opposition against their interfering in the mater. Angry villagers gheraoed the police officials and deflated the tyres of the police van.
The villagers also staged a road blockade burning tyres, following which the local Tehsildar arrived at the spot, but no solution was found till late night.