Balasore: Residents of Soro on Wednesday staged a road blockade demanding a CBI probe into the mysterious death of two Class-X girl students on August 9. Accusing the police of inaction in bringing the culprits to book, the demonstrators pointed out that the autopsy reports in the death of two girls had clearly stated that they died due to poisoning.

"The police are yet to ascertain whether they had taken poison themselves or someone forced them to take poison," said a local resident, adding that the case should be handed over to the CBI as the local police had "failed to investigate the matter and arrive at any conclusion".

Anantapur sarpanch Biswanath Behera alleged that they suspected that the girls were killed by poisoning. "The police have sought two weeks' time to unfold the mystery," he said.

Inspector in charge of Soro police station Khyamasagar Panda said: "The case is under investigation and we have appealed to the villagers to give us clues if they suspect any foul play. We are making our best efforts to solve the mystery," he said, adding that the villagers had called off the agitation and allowed the traffic to be resumed following their assurance of a speedy probe.

Traffic on the road between Soro and Anantapur was disrupted between 9am and 1pm because of the blockade. The two deceased - Laxmipriya Dash of Tantei village and her friend Priyanka Das of Baripada village - were good friends.#