The entire Ainthapali area and the State Highway-10 turned into a battleground on Friday morning following the death of a tribal youth in the custody of the Ainthapali police station in Sambalpur city.
For a long time, the area almost continued to remain a warzone with attacks and counter attacks by an angry mob and police. Even, district SP Sanjeev Arora was not spared from attack while the Hirakhud DSP and several police personnel sustained severe injuries. Similarly, several agitators were injured due to a police lathicharge.
As per reports, the Ainthapali police had detained two boys on the allegation of their involvement in cash and ornament theft from the Royal Retreat during a marriage ceremony. But after Thursday midnight, one of the youths, Abinash Munda (22), was found dead in the police station.
While police claimed that Abinash committed suicide with help of a thread from a blanket, family members and villagers attributed the reason to excessive torture by police in the custody. “My nephew was beaten to death by police. And they are telling lies that he committed suicide which is totally impossible,” said uncle of the deceased Mohan Munda.
“After getting complaints from the parents of a bride regarding theft of cash and jewellery of the girl, police swung into action. Further there was allegation of theft of mobile phones and cash of the catering staff. By tracking these mobiles, police reached these youths and recovered mobile phone from them that proved their involvement,” said Northern Range IG Susant Nath.
He further made clear that the reason behind the death would be clear after completion of the enquiry by HRPC and also after getting the post mortem report.
When the news of the custody death reached the family members, the anger of the villagers and people belonging to the tribal community knew no bounds. They attacked the police on duty, pelted stones on them, vandalised the police station, destroyed office records and furniture and set fire to the vehicles parked inside the premises.
There was fear and panic everywhere in Ainthapali and people passing by got frightened due to such activities of the angry mob and counter action by the police.
However, with deployment of additional forces, the situation was brought under control at around 1 pm. Sambalpur district Collector Samarth Verma and SP Sanjeev Arora held discussions with the villagers and tribal leaders, sources said.
As a precautionary measure, police forces were deployed from Ainthapali Chowk to Bhalupali village as the administration apprehended a repeat of the morning situation after the dead body reached his village from the VSSIMSAR after postmortem.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sanctioned Rs 5 lakh to the family members of the deceased. He also expressed grief over the youth’s death.
As disciplinary action, DGP RP Sharma suspended Ainthapali PS IIC Srimanta Barik, the DCO and a Sentry for negligence in duty.