Jharkhand police rescue four abducted cops from clutches of Pathalgadi supporters

Khunti police rescued four policemen who were allegedly abducted by Pathalgadi supporters earlier this week during a search operation at Jhiling Bera village in the wee hours of Friday.

The policemen, including three house guards of BJP parliamentarian Karia Munda, were allegedly abducted in retaliation for a police crackdown conducted in connection with the gang rape of five anti-human trafficking activists 10 days ago. The abduction of the fourth person, constable Nagendra Singh, had not been revealed to the media.

“We rescued the four from Jhiling Bera village on Friday morning. We were conducting the search operation when the Pathalgadi supporters who had abducted the guards fled, leaving them behind,” said South Chhotanagpur deputy inspector general AV Homkar.

Pathalgadi, a controversial practice adopted by many tribal villages, involves the declaration of gram sabhas as the only sovereign authority — rejecting the supremacy of the state government as well as the Centre. Community leaders usually install huge stone plaques and signboards outside their tribal settlements across Khunti, Simdega, Gumla and West Singhbhum districts to dissuade outsiders from entering.

This particular stand-off between police and the villagers took root when five women tribal activists working with a Christian NGO were abducted by six motorcycle-borne men while they were performing a street play at RC Mission School in Khunti’s Kochang village on the afternoon of June 19. They were allegedly taken to a forested area and raped.

After the incident, police arrested two local residents — Ajub Sandi and Ashish Longo — who confessed to raping the women and even forcing them to drink urine at the behest of Pathalgarhi leaders John Jonas Tiru and Yusuf Purty. The leaders allegedly wanted to teach them a lesson for entering the village.

Police also took Father Alfanso Aien, a Christian priest heading the school from where the women were abducted, into custody for allegedly trying to hush up the crime. On June 26, a police team raided Udburu village to arrest Purty but he managed to escape. They then proceeded to attach his properties.

The same day, a mob of nearly 300 Pathalgadi supporters attacked former Lok Sabha deputy speaker Karia Munda’s house in Chandidih village and abducted the three police guards — identified as Subodh Kujur, Vinod Kerketta and Suyom Surin. Police said the rifles snatched from them are yet to be recovered.

The police had no choice but to retaliate, and a large contingent descended on Gaghra village — where the policemen were being held hostage — on June 27. At least 5,000 villagers, including women, put up a stiff resistance for over two hours. Even as a local resident died and more than 200 others suffered injuries, a group of villagers manage to whisk the abductees into the forest.

Police said over 150 Pathalgadi supporters were detained, and at least 200 motorcycles, 70 four-wheelers and autorickshaws, 100 bicycles and traditional tribal weapons recovered from the site. The hunt came to an end on Friday morning, when the abductees were finally rescued.