Bhubaneswar: Family members and villagers of lynch victim Soumya Ranjan Swain on Saturday demanded a polygraph test on the woman who accused him of attempting rape on a busy road in Balianta area on Thursday, an allegation that triggered the fatal attack.A wave of anger and grief has engulfed Swain’s Maujpur village, located about 27 km from Bhubaneswar, where its 600 residents are demanding clarity on the circumstances surrounding the mob lynching. They insist the charges were false and believe her false claims incited the mob’s violence against Swain.Swain’s father, Dhusasana Swain, a farmer, rejected the allegations outright. “The woman is lying. The location she mentioned is a busy stretch where no one would dare commit such an offence in broad daylight. My son may have had enemies I was unaware of. She might have connived with them to kill him. She should be subjected to a lie-detector test,” he said.The family also dismissed claims that Soumya collapsed on the woman due to a seizure, leading to a misunderstanding. His friend, Om Prakash Rout, on Friday suggested this possibility, but Dhusasana countered: “My son had no history of epileptic seizures. He was fit and fine.”Soumya’s uncle, Ajay Kumar Dash, accused the commissionerate police of bias. “We do not trust the current investigation. The police are painting my nephew in bad light without conducting a thorough inquiry. He was beaten to death in front of the police, yet they concluded he was at fault. We cannot...
Bhubaneswar: Family members and villagers of lynch victim Soumya Ranjan Swain on Saturday demanded a polygraph test on the woman who accused him of attempting rape on a busy road in Balianta area ...