Bhubaneswar: While people across the state condemned the mob lynching of Soumya Ranjan Swain, accused of attempting to rape a 24-year-old woman, the survivor has defended the crowd, calling them her 'saviours'. Swain, a 32-year-old railway constable and part-time fitness instructor, was tied to a pole and beaten to death. Videos of the incident went viral, sparking shock and outrage. Friends of the deceased termed his death a 'conspiracy'.
Speaking to the media, the woman said, 'Had the villagers not intervened, he would have raped and killed me. I am alive only because of them. Police should not arrest them.' Swain's friends dismissed her allegations. Santosh Mohanty, a friend, stated, 'Nobody would dare to sexually assault a woman in broad daylight. The woman is lying and hiding something. The true sequence of events should be uncovered by police. It appears to be a conspiracy.'
According to the survivor's account, she and her friend were on a scooter heading to a relative's house around 10 am when two men—identified as Swain and his aide Om Prakash Rout—approached from the opposite direction on a two-wheeler. 'One of them passed lewd comments and shouted at us while passing by. They then turned back, rammed our scooter from behind, causing us to fall and sustain injuries. Swain then hit me on my head, tore my clothes, and tried to rape and kill me. He even threatened to abduct and take me to his room,' she alleged. She added that she lost consciousness during the assault. Her friend raised an alarm, drawing the attention of passers-by. Local residents rushed the women to a hospital, where the survivor was discharged after initial treatment.
Regarding the viral footage showing Swain tied to a pole and being beaten, the survivor claimed he did not die from the assault, contradicting her earlier statement about being unconscious. 'Some local residents only slapped him for unruly behaviour. He was alive when the police arrived. He may have died due to an underlying condition. The postmortem will confirm the cause,' she claimed.
