yup, now it seems like only sensible option is to change the version of opencv.
For me, unfortunately, even, zbar library is also giving linking issue.
python 3.x - OSError while trying to import pyzbar libray on imx8m mini board - Stack Overflow
This zbar issue seems very rare, I am not able to find solutions for zbar issue also.
I have been trying to fix either of these(opencv/zbar) from past few days, but no luck yet. Will try updating to opencv 4.4.0 and see if it helps.
Thanks