KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Aug 25: A man was lynched and burnt to death by an angry mob in Rupa village under Tikabali police station of Kandhamal district on Sunday night, police sources said on Monday.

The man, said to be a paralytic patient, was killed as he was unable to escape when the angry mob set the houses in the hamlet on fire under the cover of darkness.

Latest reports from the trouble-torn Kandhamal indicated that violence was spreading in most areas of the district in protest against the killing of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda and four of his disciples on Saturday night.

Despite curfew in force in many towns, several prayer houses were vandalised and burnt on Sunday in different parts of Kandhamal.

Angry protestors, all workers of VHP, also gheraoed senior administration officials at Phulbani demanding arrest of those responsible for the killing of Lakshmanananda.

The statewide bandh, called by the VHP, had brought normal life to a complete halt in Kandhamal.

Meanwhile, the body of Lakshmanananda was being taken to the late Swami's ashram at Chakapada. The funeral was scheduled to take place in the afternoon.

VHP leader Pravinbhai Togadia and several BJP leaders of Odisha were likely to attend the funeral.

Kandhamal had faced widespread communal violence in the last week of December last year following an attack on Lakshmanananda.