BJP supporter shot dead in Dhenkanal district
Dhenkanal, Apr 17 (PTI) A 56-year-old BJP supporter was allegedly shot dead outside his house in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district on Sunday, police said.
Enraged BJP workers attacked the minor son and wife of the accused while they were escaping, leaving them injured.
The incident took place at Kandhapal village when the accused Nrupati Nayak, said to be a supporter of the ruling BJD, fired from a gun killing Dalei Nayak, a BJP supporter.
Dhenkanal SDPO Bikash Behura said “The accused Nrupati Nayak, a contractor, was trying to lift soil from a nearby pond using tractors. The deceased and his family members protested, saying the vehicles were damaging the narrow village road. This angered the accused who fired at the victim using a country-made gun.”
When BJP supporters assembled near the pond, the accused fled from the spot.
In a fit of rage, the party supporters attacked the wife and 3-year-old son of the accused.
However, both the mother and son were rescued by villagers and rushed to the Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital where their condition is described to be stable, the police said.
People close to the deceased also allegedly torched a thatched house of the accused’s brother Niranjan Nayak, the police said.
By the time fire tenders reached the village, the house was gutted.
While the police said that the incident was a sequel to an old rivalry between the two families, BJP leader Ramchandra Patra alleged that it was a political killing carried out by Nrupati Nayak.
The ruling party was yet to react to the allegation.
The police have deployed one platoon (30 personnel) of force in the village to maintain law and order , the SDPO said.
The villagers said that both the victim and the accused belonged to rival political parties.
The rivalry between the two persons worsened when the victim’s daughter-in-law became the ward member after defeating the sister-in-law of the accused in the recently concluded panchayat elections, they claimed.
PTI
