A team of Election Commission officials was brutally attacked on Sunday night during a raid on the farmhouse of former minister and the BJD’s candidate for the Pipili assembly constituency Pradeep Maharathy in Odisha’s Puri district, in a fresh incident of violence in the state during elections.
The flying squad team led by executive magistrate Rabi Narayan Patra had gone to keep a watch on the farmhouse of Maharathy, known for his strong-arm tactics, after being tipped off about the distribution of cash and liquor.
“While we were keeping a watch outside the former minister’s farmhouse at Hunkeipur village, Maharathy suddenly arrived at the spot and started chasing us. His workers attacked us with bamboo sticks,” said Patra, who was severely beaten and is now being treated at the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Patra and his team, who were bleeding profusely, fled the spot in one of their vehicles as Maharathy’s men chased them. “We had to flee leaving one of our vehicles on the spot. Had we stayed any longer we would have been killed,” said Patra.