Crackdown on ganja smuggling cost police personnel dear
as angry villagers attacked them injuring a policeman seriously at
Matikhal village in Koraput district on Friday night.
According to reports, a team of over 30 police personnel had been
pressed for the raid at Matikhal under the Machhkund police limits on
the allegation of ganja smuggling in the locality.
However, villagers attacked the police personnel accusing them of
barging into their houses and misbehaving with women at night. They
detained a policeman after severely beating him.
“Usually male persons of the family go to the forests at night to guard
cashew plants during the season. At around 9.30 pm on Friday,
approximately 40-50 police personnel came to the village in our absence
and entered into our houses for raid without prior notice. They removed
clothes of women while they were sleeping and misbehaved with them.
When the women objected and questioned the police, the latter told them
that they were there by the order of the Koraput SP for searches at
houses,” a villager told media, adding, “The police personnel opened fire
and we thought some of our villagers succumbed in the firing. We
caught one policeman, who claimed himself as a Home Guard or a
Constable or a SDPO.”
The policeman detained by the villagers was rescued later.