Khordha: Tension prevailed after a friendly banter snowballed into violence with a customer sustaining serious injuries after he was assaulted by a shopkeeper and his son in Balipatana in Odisha's Khordha district. The incident took place at Athantar market in Balipatna tehsil on Sunday afternoon. The accused Aarat Muduli and his son have been detained by police following the attack. 

The victim youth, identified as Lokanath Sethy - a resident of Nuagaon in Athantar - is currently undergoing treatment at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar. He was reportedly beaten up with a rod by the father-son duo.

As per reports, Sethy was a regular customer at Aarat's tea stall. Like every other day, he went over to have tea in the afternoon at around 3 pm and engaged in a light-hearted conversation with Aarat. Since the duo shared a camaraderie since a long time, Sethy and Aarat started joking and exchanging wisecracks.

Customer chased, beaten with iron rod

However, the conversation did not go down well with Aarat's son who was present there. He asked Sethy to hold back but the latter continued joking, dismissing the warning. Soon, a heated exchange of words broke out and within minutes, escalated with Aarat and his son both brandishing an iron rod and attacking Sethy. 

Eyewitnesses said the duo chased Sethy with the rod and thrashed him, injuring him on the head. Some bystanders intervened and rushed to save Sethy as he collapsed on the ground. The locals then detained the accused and handed them over to the police. 

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