Kangaroo Court Ostracises 8 Families In Nayagarh Village!

Nayagarh, Oct 19: A Kangaroo court in a village in Odisha’s Nayagarh district ostracised eight families over alleged land encroachment issues, locals said on Saturday.

The incident took place at Gopinathpur village under Ranpur police station limits in the district.

According to sources, the village committee of Gopinathpur allegedly imposed a huge amount of fine to the tune of over Rs 4 lakh on a few villagers for alleged encroachment of land and construction of residential buildings.

The village committee includes President Chaitanya Behera, Secretary Sankarsan Sahu, Antaryami Swain, Pabitra Nayak and other members of the village.

When the victims protested the fine, the village committee, headed by President Chaitanya Behera, imposed social boycott on eight families of the village.

Accordingly, the victims can’t purchase ration or any goods from any shops of the village; their children can’t go to tuition; they can’t take water from public tubewell; even they are not allowed to talk to the rest of the villagers.

Further, the village committee announced a fine of Rs 5000 on those villagers violating the boycott order.

Although the social boycott against the eight families is in effect since last two months, the incident came to notice after one of the victims, identified as Chaitanya Sahu, lodged an FIR against the village committee at Ranpur police station, yesterday.