Eight persons, including a woman, were burnt alive by a mob of villagers opposing a polluting stone crusher at this village in Ganjam district on Friday night.
The victims were three partners who owned the crusher, a brother of one of the partners, an accountant of the unit, the crusher driver, and his wife. The village, 60 km from Berhampur, is part of Hinjli, the constituency of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The Home Department has ordered Ganjam Superintendent of Police Nitinjeet Singh and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police R.K. Sharma to furnish reports regarding the incident.
About 200 armed police personnel have been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure. All men, barring a few aged ones, have abandoned the village to escape arrest. According to police sources, six persons involved in the incident have been identified. Efforts are on to arrest them.
The DIG and the SP visited the place to monitor the situation. Charred remains of six persons were recovered from a room while the burnt body of the woman was found on the premises of the unit.
According to the SP, the mob used petrol or diesel to torch the victims. He suspected that diesel and explosives stored inside the room of the unit may have added to the blaze. Fire tenders from Aska and Hinjili rushed to the spot but by the time they arrived under police protection at around midnight it was all over.
The victims had an altercation with the villagers after which the mob chased them into the unit premises. They locked themselves up inside the outhouse of the crusher, which was torched by the mob.
The DIG said preliminary enquiry suggested that a continuing tussle between the villagers and the crusher owners had led to the outrage. Villagers alleged that pollution due to blasting and stone crushing had drastically affected their agriculture. They were also opposed to blasting of the hill where they had a traditional deity. Zilla Parishad member Pratap Nayak alleged that the Revenue Department had not consulted the villagers before permitting the crusher in the area. Villagers had aired their grievance to the administration but no action was taken.
