BJP workers clash with cops in Odisha, 4 injured

Cuttack: At least four persons, including three police personnel, were on Friday injured in a clash between security personnel and BJP workers on the premises of a police station in Odisha’s Cuttack district, a senior officer said.

The BJP workers were staging a protest outside Narasinghapur police station over the detention of three party members when the situation turned volatile as some women agitators sought to lock its doors, the officer said.

The police then used batons to disperse the crowd.

In the melee, stones were hurled and a protester and three policemen, one of them a woman, suffered injuries.

According to the saffron party, the police picked up three BJP workers from Ratapata village — Manoj Nayak, Ranjan Samantray, and Lipaya Baliarsingh — on Thursday night in connection with a face-off between BJD and BJP activists on Narasinghpur court premises on October 5.

The police, however, claimed that they were detained in connection with a kidnapping and assault case registered earlier this year.