People gather in front of the multi-storeyed building near Salia Sahi, where the domestic help, Janani Pradhan, allegedly fell to death from rooftop. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 2: Tension gripped the Jayadev Vihar area as hundreds of slum dwellers from nearby Salia Sahi blocked the road between May Fair Square and Biju Patnaik College Square after the death of a domestic help working in the house of a retired bank employee. The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the crowd.

The body of the woman, identified as Janani Pradhan, 32, was found lying near the three-storeyed building of her employer Prakash Mohapatra. The deceased’s husband, Debendra Pradhan, said he received a call from Mohapatra that his wife had fallen from the roof of his house.

“I found my wife lying in a pool of blood. Her head was severely crushed and the body bore several injury marks. She died by the time I reached there,” said Debendra, a daily-wage labourer. Debendra said when he had asked Mohapatra about the cause of his wife’s death, the latter could not give any satisfactory answer.

Debendra alleged that his wife, mother of two sons, was murdered by her employer, as she did not return the money she had borrowed from him. “My wife had been working for them for the past three years. Recently, she had left work. But, the house owner told her either to pay back the money or keep working. She started working in his house to pay him back the loan of Rs 3,000,” said the husband, while accusing Mohapatra of pushing her from the rooftop.

Following the incident, hundreds of slum dwellers came to the road and demanded arrest of Mohapatra. The Nayapalli police rushed to the spot to take control of the situation.

The senior officers, including deputy commissioner of police Nitinjit Singh, had rushed to the spot to pacify the protesters. The protesters blocked the road for more than three hours by burning tyres on the street. They did not allow the police to take the body for post-mortem, until the house owner was arrested. “We want the family of the deceased to be paid compensation and the house owner to be arrested,” said Sushil Diggal, one of the protesters.

The slum dwellers stayed there for nearly five hours. In the afternoon, the police had to resort to lathicharge and dispersed the mob. Singh said a case of unnatural death had been registered with the Nayapalli police station.

“We have sent the body for post-mortem,” said Singh.