Debasish Patra (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 8: Oriya film actor Debasish Patra and two of his friends were detained by police for over 12 hours for allegedly beating up a student following a road rage at Master Canteen Square last night.

Debasish, who has acted in some hit movies apart from popular music albums, was taken to Kharavela Nagar police station around 11.30pm after an FIR was lodged against him by one Sunil Das, the student injured in the incident.

The brawl followed a near collision between the actor’s car and Das’ motorcycle. The student was riding on his motorcycle along with his friend.

The police said Debasish and his friends were later released on Personal Recognisance (PR) bail bonds this afternoon. They had been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Debasish, who shot to fame with Jai Jagannath in which he played the character of Narad, was going towards Ram Mandir Square by his car last night, when two students coming on a motorcycle from the opposite direction almost collided with the car. The police said the students were driving on the wrong lane.

Das said that as soon as they stopped the motorcycle, the actor stepped out of his car and started threatening them and boasting about his Ollywood identity.

“The actor kept on asking why we took the wrong side of the lane. We pleaded that it was late night and we wanted to cross the road near the median-cut in front of the Tarini temple. Debasish, however, refused to listen. He punched me in the face and I sustained a cut on my eyebrow,” said Das, a management student.

Das alleged that the actor had also called his friends to the spot and they all started beating him. Das said he, too, was forced to call up his friends and the assault on him stopped only after his friends arrived.

However, one of the actor’s friends claimed that the brawl started after a student slapped Debasish.

On being informed that more than 50 students had gathered there and the brawl was threatening to flare up into a major violence, the police rushed to the spot. They took the actor and his friends Komalkant Mohapatra and Gobardhan Mohanty to police station.

The police said they were detained on the basis of Das’ complaint. “As the section under which they were booked were bailable, we let them go on a PR bond,” said a police officer.