Rly cop lynching case: Families of accused allege false arrests, police deny claim

Bhubaneswar: The family members of two men recently arrested in connection with the lynching of railway constable Soumya Ranjan Swain in Balianta on May 7 have alleged that they were falsely implicated, presenting video evidence to support their claim, even as police dismiss the allegations.“Our relatives were not at the crime scene when the lynching occurred. Closed-circuit television camera footage shows them at a fuel station at the time, and we have submitted this to the crime branch,” said a family member, requesting anonymity. The families alleged that Balianta police ignored their explanations.“We also learned that two other men were wrongly arrested. At least four innocent people have been taken into custody without any link to the crime,” another relative claimed.Police, however, said there were no false arrests. The claims are baseless, a senior officer said.Amid statewide outrage over the lynching of railway constable Soumya Ranjan Swain, in presence of police personnel, 11 men were arrested — five on May 8 and six on May 9. The crime branch, which took over the probe on May 9, has since arrested four more, bringing the total to 15.With questions now raised about the legitimacy of some arrests, the crime branch sources confirmed that the video evidence submitted by relatives of the accused will be sent to the forensic science laboratory for verification.In a related development, the investigators plan to conduct a polygraph test on Swain’s friend Om Prakash Rout, a key witness, to reconstruct the sequence of events. The crime branch inquiry has revealed that Swain was in a hallucinatory state, likely triggered by a suspected steroid overdose — traces of which were apparently found in his blood. He reportedly mistook a woman on a scooter for another who had filed a sexual harassment case against him in 2021. Swain allegedly assaulted and attempted rape her, prompting the local residents to intervene. Although local police arrived while Swain was still alive, they failed to prevent the assault from escalating.