Jharkhand: Hunt on for ex-BDO seeking Kolhan’s secession from India

One of the supporters of the retired BDO, Ramo Birua (80), has been arrested and an FIR of sedition registered against 44 others (Google Maps)

A retired Block Development Officer, who was scheduled to hold a programme on Monday for “declaring Kolhan a separate state from the country”, is on the run and the West Singhbhum (Chaibasa) police is looking for him. One of the supporters of the retired BDO, Ramo Birua (80), has been arrested and an FIR of sedition registered against 44 others.

The police have also imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the village, Bindibasa, where the programme was to be held. According to the police, they came across pamphlets which exhorted people to collect at Bindibasa on December 18, where Kolhan — Chaibasa is the divisional headquarters of the Kolhan division of Jharkhand — would be declared a “separate state” from the country. The police arrested Munna Baan Singh, a resident of Badeya village and supporter of Birua.

“We conducted raids on the house of Birua also but he managed to escape. Currently, he is underground,” said DSP (headquarters) Prakash Soy. The police also found posters and banners from Bindibasa where the programme was to be held. The administration held a meeting with the village manaki-munda — a committee of residents formed to settle minor disputes in the village which is appointed by the administration — and urged them not to attend any meeting called by Birua or his supporters.

Chaibasa SP Anish Gupta said: “Birua had been making this claim for the past few years. He had begun appointing a manaki-munda on his own, claiming to be the de facto administrator, or khewatdar, of Kolhan. He was arrested over eight months ago for similar claims and activities. He was released from jail a couple of months ago and had again resumed the same things.”

Police officers said Birua had laid claim to being the de facto administrator of Kolhan on the basis of a document and some letters he had written to the President and the Governor. He claimed the British had made his family the “khewatdar” and authorised him to charge rent from the local population in the name of the Kolhan Eastern Government.

“Post-Independence, the system was not formally changed. He claimed that he was, in effect, still the khewatdar,” said a police officer. SP Gupta said: “There is no authenticity in the documents and everything is self-styled. He was trying to appoint people and seek rents.” Birua, who had been a BDO in undivided Bihar, after Jharkhand was formed in 2000.