Traffic along the Armstrong Road, an arterial street of the city, came to grinding halt for three hours on Tuesday as hundreds of protestors placing a dead body in front of the Superintendent of Police office blocked the road demanding arrest of the in-laws of the deceased who was allegedly set on fire while he was in his in-laws’ house to call his wife back home.
Nisikanta Mishra (26) was married to a girl of Baliapanda of the city two years ago and they have a six-month-old son. For some unspecified reason, his wife went to her parents’ house at Baliapanda Sahi. On August 5, Sitikanta went to his in-laws’ house to get her back. He was, however, mysteriously found with severe burn injuries at his in-laws’ house and was rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital. later, he was shifted to a private nursing home in Bhubaneswar as his condition worsened.
On Tuesday, he succumbed to his injuries. His parents and residents of the Kalikadebi Sahi along with his other relatives lodged a complaint with the police that he was doused in kerosene and set on fire by his father-in-law and brother-in-law. They demanded arrest of the accused persons and suspension of the police officer who did not act on their complaint. On the other hand, the father-in-law of the deceased lodged a complaint with the Baliapanda police that Sitikanta after a brief quarrel with his wife set himself on fire. Additional Superintendent of Police Dillip Kumar Das assured the agitators to take legal actions against the accused persons.