In yet another instance of Kangaroo court justice, a woman and her family were branded as thieves and asked to pay a hefty fine at Udayapur village of the district on Saturday.
When she expressed her inability to pay the fine, she was thrashed severely by some locals. Sources said that some gold ornaments had been stolen from the house of one Bhagaban Behera of the village a few days ago.
Later, the village panchayat took help of two black magicians to nab the accused involved in the crime. The duo suggested performing a ritual in which a cot was moved in and around the village. The cot finally stopped in front of the house of Madhab, the elder brother of Bhagaban.
Later, the locals imposed a penalty of Rs 1.42 lakh on the family on the charge of theft, But Madhab’s wife Sukanti refused to pay the penalty, for which she was reportedly dragged out of the house and brutally assaulted.
Sukanti registered a complaint at the Sadar police station regarding the whole episode on Sunday and the police started an investigation into the incident.
In a similar instance recently, a family of Kotagarh village in the Rajsunakhela area in the same Nayhagarh district, members of a family were also allegedly assaulted by villagers on the suspicion of being thieves after a moving cot stopped in front of their house. But the police are yet to take any action against the accused.