Woman, in-laws fight over Bahanaga triple-train accident relief money

Bhubaneswar: As families try to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the Bahanaga train tragedy that left 294 passengers dead, a tug-of-war has ensued between a woman and her in-laws in Bhadrak district over the share of compensation amount released by the state government and the railways. Bijaylaxmi Sahoo, who lost her husband Gobinda Sahoo in the June 2 accident, has lodged a complaint against his parents — Rabindra Nath Sahoo and Annapurna Sahoo — at Basudevpur police station on Monday for allegedly misappropriating the compensation money she had received.“I had got Rs 5 lakh from the state government and Rs 10 lakh from the railways. The money was deposited in my account. But my in-laws threatened me and forcibly withdrew all the money,” her complaint read.Her in-laws rubbished the allegations and denied having forced or intimidated her to give them the money. “We withdrew Rs 10 lakh from her account with her consent. She put her signature on the cheque. We urgently required money to repair our old house,” Rabindra said.Police have not registered any case as the warring parties agreed to settle the dispute amicably. “We heard both the parties after receiving the complaint. There seemed to be some dispute between them over sharing of the compensation amount. They told us they would resolve the dispute on their own,” Basudevpur police station IIC, Sabitri Panda, said.
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