Local residents gherao Badagada police station in Bhubaneswar and (inset) the missing youth Smruti Ranjan Sahu. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 4: Around 100 residents of Badagada today gheraoed the local police station alleging inaction on their complaint about a youth having gone missing for the last two days.

They called off the protest after the police assured them of action.

The residents alleged that the family members of 22-year-old Smruti Ranjan Sahu, who had been missing since September 2 evening, had lodged a complaint with the Badagada police, but they did not take any action.

The complaint stated that one of Sahu’s friends, Aswini, called up him on Friday evening. Aswini asked him to go with him to a builder for collecting money. Sahu did not return till late night.

“We searched him everywhere, but could not find him. We even called up Aswini on his cellphone, which was initially switched off. Later, Aswini said he was in Puri. As we could not find him, we lodged a police complaint,” said Pravakar Sahu, the youth’s father who works in the Accountant General’s (AG) office. He said the police, instead of receiving his original complaint, had asked him to make changes to which he did not agree.

Sahu’s mother, Premalata, said on Friday evening, her son got a call from Aswini, a medicine storeowner in the area. Sahu soon left house on his motorcycle.

“Two days have passed. We have no information about our son. His cellphone remains switched off,” said Premalata.

They alleged that the police had shown no interest in the case. “The police, instead of doing anything, asked us to search for him. We suspect Aswini have kidnapped my brother,” said Sahu’s brother Aseem.

However, in another development, the police said they had detained Aswini and his three friends. Moreover, they recorded Aswini’s statement, in which he had refused the charges of having kidnapped Sahu. Aswini said he had met Sahu, but later went to Puri with another friend. “We had even enquired with the Puri hotel where he was yesterday. We are verifying Aswini’s statements,” said a police officer.

After the police assured them of taking steps in the case, the protesting residents dispersed from the police station. The police said they were verifying all possible angles of the missing case.