Tamluk: Enraged by sprinkling of colours on Holi against his
wish, a 55-year-old farmer with a sickle in the hand allegedly chased a
group of boys, caught one of them and hacked his left arm at Digha in
East Midnapore on Thursday.
Arijit Barik, 11, a resident of Paya village, was given eight stitches on the left arm
The alleged attacker, Prabodh Dutta, is on the run. Police
have registered an "attempt to murder" case against the farmer on the
basis of a complaint lodged by the boy's father, Manindra Barik.
Dutta was working in the garden when the boys arrived and sprinkled colours on him.
"We had been playing with colours mixed with water from around
8am. I, along with my friends, were spraying coloured water on
passers-by with our pichkaris (water guns). We noticed that
Prabodh dadu was erecting a bamboo fence in front of his home. When we
went forward and sprayed colours on him, he became furious," said
Arijit.
"He picked up a sickle and chased us. My friends ran away but I
stumbled. He caught me and hit my left arm with the sickle heavily,"
added the boy.
Arijit, a Class V student, was released from a Digha hospital after the arm was stitched and bandaged near the elbow.
Sandip Das, Arijit's classmate who was part of the young
sprinkler brigade, said when Prabodh had seen them approaching with the pichkaris,
he had asked them not to go near him. "But we could not imagine that he
would become so furious and hack my friend just because we sprayed
colours on the day of Holi," said Sandip.
Arijit's father, a hawker on the Digha beach, said Prabodh would get irritated easily.
"We have noticed that he gets angry if children enter the
small garden he maintains in front of his house. Sometimes, he even
takes the trouble of going to the children's homes to complain. But this
is too much. I find it difficult to accept that he hit my son's arm
with a sickle just because he and his friends sprinkled colours on him,"
said Manindra Barik.
Following the attack, residents of Paya village stopped the
Holi celebration and called off a cultural programmed scheduled for
Thursday evening.
Officer-in-charge of Digha police station, Basuki Banerjee,
said: "We have launched a search for the accused person. We hope to
arrest him soon."
The Telegraph
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