‘CRPF men raided village, cops booked Naxals’

RANCHI: A CRPF raid on Chiriyabera village in Goelkera (Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district) last month triggered a series of charges and counter-allegations between residents, police, the security force and even members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
While locals said CRPF personnel unleashed terror in the village, local police filed an FIR against “armed persons”, indicating that Maoists were behind the incident. The angered Maoists took action on July 12 by blowing up 12 buildings of the Jharkhand forest department and setting several vehicles on fire.
A Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha fact-finding team, comprising representatives of NGOs and activist groups visited the village on four occasions since the CRPF raid of June 15 and submitted a report to West Singhbhum district officials demanding that the matter be investigated.
Team member Elina Horro told TOI that approximately 50 armed CRPF personnel questioned about 25 villagers in the village during a regular search operation in the forests.
The team also found that an FIR was filed on June 17 in which the police named “some armed personnel” instead of CRPF personnel and the local media reported it as an act of violence by the Maoists.