Bhubaneswar: Mystery shrouded the death of a youth near Shaheed Nagar police station in the capital city on Thursday night. The deceased has been identified as Bichitra Palei, a resident of Ramachandrapur village in Odisha’s Jajpur district. According to the police, Palei had reportedly taken a loan of Rs 3 lakhs from Batakrushna Behera three years ago.
As he delayed the repayment, there was a fight between the two some days ago. However, the dispute was resolved after an agreement on the payment of the loan. On Thursday night, finding Palei wandering near their house, Batakrushna and his sister, Netramani thrashed and also tried to kidnap him by forcibly pushing him into a car.
Talking to the media, Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said Palei managed to jump off the car when the vehicle slowed down near Vani Vihar Square in the city. Passersby intervened and took Palei to the Shaheed Nagar police station on a motorbike. After they entered the police station premises, Palei began to call his friends for help, but he soon fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
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Responding to the commotion, policemen on duty at the Shaheed Nagar police station rushed and found Bichitra lying on the ground unconscious around 9:25 pm. They rushed Palei to the Capital Hospital for treatment in a police van but the doctors declared him brought dead.
Subsequently, the Saheed Nagar police launched investigation into the incident and detained Batakrushna and Netramani for interrogation. The police seized their vehicle and registered a case (no. 56/23) in connection with the incident. DCP Singh said that since the death occurred on the premises of Shaheed Nagar police station, they are following the guidelines set by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the post-mortem was videographed.
