Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Bhubaneswar, July 28: Shopkeepers today tied up a man to the iron fencing around Indira Gandhi Park here.
The incident took place this morning in full view of the public. They had allegedly also assaulted the man after accusing him of shoplifting. Police swung into action after a video of the incident was shared on social media platforms.
The shopkeepers took law into their own hands near one of the most crowded parks in the city. The man, who failed to identify himself in the police station, remained tied up to the grille for around an hour before a police team arrived to rescue him.
The two-minute video showed the man being tied with a rope and surrounded by several shopkeepers. One of the shopkeepers can also be seen offering water to the man. Several passers-by were also seen in the video but none came to his aid.
"Several incidents of shoplifting were taking place over the past couple of weeks in the area and today we caught the culprit red-handed. The man did not confess to his crimes and so, we tied him to the iron fencing," said a shopkeeper. However, he denied allegations of assault on the man.
The police suspect the man is mentally unstable as he was unable to furnish his identity.
"He continued to laugh when we asked him about the incident and his identity. We have also obtained the video and have detained two shopkeepers. We are interrogating them," said inspector in charge of Capital police station Manas Ranjan Garanaik.
Deputy commissioner of police, Bhubaneswar, Satyabrata Bhoi urged citizens not to take law into their own hands.
"If the shopkeepers claimed to have caught the thief red-handed, they should have immediately informed the police. We are investigating the matter," said Bhoi.
On January 4, two robbers were lynched and another suffered serious injuries when a mob assaulted them after an attempted bank robbery near Ranpur in Nayagarh district. The trio were trying to flee after robbing Rs 3 lakh from a nationalised bank at Kasanda village in Ranpur police limits when local residents overpowered them.