Stone plaques or signboards outside Burugulikera village set up as part of the Pathalgarhi movement, declaring... Read More

JAMSHEDPUR/RANCHI: The decapitated bodies of seven Christian Murmu tribals were found strewn deep inside the Saranda forest of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district late on Tuesday, bolstering suspicion of a violent feud between two local groups over reviving the Pathalgarhi tribal autonomy movement that had been dealt with an iron hand by the erstwhile BJP-led government.

TOI had reported on Wednesday about heavy police deployment in the area amid unconfirmed reports about seven villagers being killed for their opposition to the stir. While West Singhbhum SP Indrajit Mahata had said a dispute over the Pathalgarhi movement was the possible trigger for the killings, the police came out with a more open-ended hypothesis after the bodies were found.

DGP K N Choubey, who chaired a meeting of the police brass in Ranchi and briefed CM Hemant Soren about the developments, said the investigation was still in a preliminary stage. “We have formed an SIT under the Chaibasa DSP and directed him to probe the killings from all possible angles,” he said. “The SIT should not be prejudiced by the version of the villagers and conduct a neutral investigation. There could be more than meets the eye.”

Sources claimed the police had already pieced together information that suggests supporters of the Pathalgarhi movement kidnapped the seven men, aged between 24 and 35, on Sunday and killed them in retaliation for their opposition to the move to revive the stir. The unidentified killers dumped the bodies, including that of a panchayat representative, in the dense Saranda forest, around 3km from Burugulikera village, the sources added.

Burugulikera is 150km west of the steel city of Jamshedpur.

IGP (operations) Saket Kumar Singh said a police team had reached Burugulikera late on Tuesday after getting information about the killings. Till Wednesday evening, the police hadn’t identified the bodies or picked up any of the suspects.

While senior police officers claimed the faces of the victims were mutilated beyond recognition, local sources identified those killed as deputy gram sabha mukhiya James Buda and fellow villagers Songe Topna, Lomba Buda, Etva Buda, Jawra Buda, Nirmal Buda and Bonam Longa. The bodies have been sent to Sadar Hospital in Chaibasa for post-mortem.

According to sources, a group of tribals keen on reviving the Pathalgarhi movement in West Singhbhum had organised a meeting in Gudri block on Sunday and invited residents of all nearby villages to attend it. A handful of villagers are said to have opposed the idea, resulting in a clash. The seven victims were kidnapped the same evening, the sources said.

Soon after the bodies were found, a political slugfest erupted between BJP and the new JMM-led government over CM Soren withdrawing all sedition cases that had been filed against Pathalgarhi activists by the erstwhile Raghubar Das ministry.

Expressing “deep anguish” over the killings, BJP’s newly elected national president J P Nadda formed a six-member fact-finding team of elected representatives from various states to visit Burugulikera and submit a report within a week.

