Overview
- Relatives and villagers pushed the 39-year-old victim’s body to Khaira police station on Tuesday to protest what they called police inaction, then placed it outside the station and blocked the Soro–Kupari road.
- Police and local reports say the violence began Sunday during roof work at the family’s home in Haripur when neighbors over a boundary dispute allegedly attacked with spades, shovels and crowbars.
- Kamala Sethi died of her injuries, and her sister-in-law Shakuntala Sethi remains critical at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after first being treated at a local facility.
- Khaira police registered FIR 123/26 and detained Bharati Jena for questioning, while Balasore SP Pratyush Diwakar said the prime accused has been arrested and that the remaining suspects would be picked up soon.
- The family demanded immediate arrests, compensation and an impartial probe, alleging the police and the village sarpanch ignored the dispute for about five years, in a pattern common to protracted rural land conflicts that can turn deadly.