Irate tribals ransack Headmaster's house

Baripada, May 5 (UNI) Hundreds of irate tribals armed with bows, arrows and lathis thronged the Matiali village under Shyamakhunta block and damaged the residence of Bhaluki residential nodal primary school headmaster Sanatan Mohanto.

They protested against the headmaster yesterday for allegedly misbehaving with a tribal girl, a class five student.

They also damaged the residences of Jagadish Mohanto, president of the Village Education Committee (VEC) at Bhaluki and of Bharati Mohanty, the cook of the school at the neighbouring Asanbani village, police said.

One platoon of the armed police has been deployed as the situation in the village was still tense.

The headmaster was arrested on May 1 and produced at the court.

The tribal groups, including their social heads- ''Pergannas'' and ''Majhi Pergannas'' assembled at the Gram Panchayat Office at Bhaluki and demanded that the accused headmaster be produced before their traditional social court.

According to sources, the headmaster took the girl to the weekly Haat at Baldiha on April 24 on the plea of making some purchases and allegedly misbehaved with her on their way back from the ''haat''.

The incident triggered tension in the village and Mayurbhanj District Collector S K Vashishth and Superintendent of Police S K Singh rushed to the spot this morning to take stock of the situation.

Police said efforts were on to form a Peace Committee in a bid to ease tension in the area.

UNI