Odisha: 1 killed, 10 injured during Nayagarh Danda Nata festival, 8 held

BHUBANESWAR: A 25-year-old man died and 10 others were injured, including a police inspector, in a clash between two groups celebrating Danda Nata, a religious event, in Nayagarh district, 90 km from here, on Wednesday night.
Superintendent of police (Nayagarh) Siddharth Kataria said police have arrested eight persons in connection with the incident.
Danda Nata or Danda Jatra is a 21-day festival of penance to appease Lord Shiva and goddess Kali, and it ends on Maha Bishuba Sankranti on April 14 every year.
The SP said the two groups from two adjacent villages, Durgaprasad and Deulapali, on the outskirts of Nayagarh town were taking out separate religious processions when the clash broke out over a trivial matter around midnight at a place where the two processions met near a Shiva temple in Sindhuria village.
In the ensuing melee, Nabin Parida of Durgaprasad, died while some others got injured. While trying to intervene and stop the street fight, Nayagarh police station inspector in-charge Pragnya Paramita Jena sustained minor head injuries as some people pelted stones, the SP said.
Kataria said though police are still investigating to find out what led to the clash, preliminary findings suggest some children of one village complained to their elders that people from the other group beat them up and hurled abuses.
“This seems to have led to heated arguments followed by the fight between the two groups. There is no record of past enmity between the two villages,” he said. One platoon of police force has been deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident.