Three police officers were hurt when a mob of 200 or more people destroyed the Adava police station in the Gajapati district on Tuesday. They were demanding the release of a Jharanapur resident who had been detained on Monday on suspicion of illegally possessing marijuana.
The glass door and flower pots of the police station were destroyed by the Jharanapur crowd. One Biswanath Bhuyan of Jharanapur village was detained by police on Monday when he was waiting for a vehicle to transfer six plastic drums holding 270 kg of marijuana near the village.
Police presented Bhuyan in court on Tuesday after filing a case against him for importing marijuana. The locals requested Bhuyan’s unconditional release, alleging that he was detained in a fabricated case. They claimed that police harassed innocent villagers after entering the area and believing them to be ganja smugglers.
Senior police officers and forces arrived on the scene to disperse the crowd.
SP (Gajapati) Jayaram Satapathy declared, “The situation is presently under control and we are trying to persuade the irate people.” He arrived quickly and spoke with the locals in Mohana. He pleaded with the locals to keep the peace so the police could go about their business. A police officer remarked, “We are looking into the incident and taking action against individuals responsible for vandalising the police station.”
Prasanta Patnaik