Nearly 200 Maoists held a ‘janata darbar’ at Dadapur in Gadchiroli before planting the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that claimed 16 lives in the Naxal-affected district on Wednesday, investigating officers said.
On Wednesday, a team of 15 Quick Response Team (QRT) personnel was going as reinforcements to a police team in Dadapur when the vehicle was blown up by an IED planted on the newly inaugurated highway. All 15 and the civilian driver of the vehicle were killed.
Sequence of events
The sequence of events, as pieced together by the police, indicates that around 11 p.m. on April 30, nearly 200 armed Maoists entered Dadapur village and went to the site of the National Highway being constructed through the village.
“The Maoists were mostly in the age group of 20 to 25, and a majority of them were women. They rounded up all the labourers at the site, woke up a local small time grocer, took biscuits and water bottles from him and then took the labourers to the temporary structure that acts as a site office, where they held a janata darbar. Subsequently, they set 26 vehicles on fire, including a 50-litre diesel tanker, which caused a large explosion,” an officer who is part of the investigating team said.
A team from the Purkheda police station, about three kilometres away, left for Dadapur, while also seeking reinforcements. The QRT team that was martyred in the attack had responded to the Purkheda police’s call and was on its way when it was targeted.
“We have found out that two men on a bike were driving directly in front of the QRT vehicle for quite some time, which might explain how the Maoists knew which vehicle to target, despite the personnel being in a civilian vehicle. Scores of vehicles pass on the small bridge, under which the remote-detonated IED was planted, but the attackers still knew exactly which vehicle to target,” the officer added.
₹1 cr. compensation
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, in a press interaction in Gadchiroli on Thursday, said efforts would be made to grant martyr status to the civilian driver killed in the blast.
“We will also sanction a compensation of ₹1 crore through the State government to the families of the martyrs,” Mr. Jaiswal said.