By IANS
Keonjhar (Orissa) : Sixteen people were arrested in Orissa Wednesday two days after they torched police vehicles and attacked policemen while protesting the alleged kidnapping and death of a minor girl in Keonjhar district, police said.
Thousands of people from three villages in the district Monday clashed with cops and torched two police jeeps at Elakania village, some 140 km from capital Bhubaneswar, protesting the death of five-year-old Rasmita Sahu who went missing on June 8 from the same village.
The villagers, who found the girl's body from a drain Sunday, alleged that she was kidnapped and killed due to police inaction.
Angry residents of Elakania and its neighbouring Bisnupur and Mangarajpur villages turned violent and attacked the policemen when they had gone to the village to bring the girl's body for post-mortem.
Seven policemen were injured in the incident. Police had to fire in the air to bring the situation under control.
District police Chief Ghanashyam Upadhyaya, however, said that no innocent people were arrested.