Five persons were arrested for allegedly assaulting a Kerala-based labourer on Sunday in Odisha’s Sambalpur town amid suspicions that he was a kidnapper, police said on Monday.
The victim, Vishnu Sibu, a resident of Alleppey in Kerala, was rescued by a police team on Sunday and admitted to hospital. He was later discharged and sent back to Kerala on Monday.
Sambalpur additional superintendent of police (SP) Ajay Kumar Mishra said that Vishnu earlier worked as a welding labourer under a contractor in Bargarh district. He was unemployed for the past few months and had been looking for work in Sambalpur for nearly two weeks.
“While he was near Dhobapada Chhak, some locals became suspicious because of his appearance and inability to communicate in the local language. They assumed he had come to commit a crime and assaulted him,” Mishra said.
Police later examined the viral videos and CCTV footage from the area.
Khetrajpur police station inspector-in-charge Anil Pradhan said the assault took place in the Dhobapada area under Badabazar.
The incident follows the arrest of at least 24 people on Saturday for the alleged assault of two NGO workers in Rayagada district, who were also suspected of being kidnappers.
The Investigative Units for Crime Against Women (IUCAW) of Odisha police is investigating the case. A petition has also been filed with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking monetary compensation for the two victims.
