Latehar villager killed in cold blood: BJP

Ranchi: A BJP probe panel constituted by the party’s Scheduled Tribe wing on Sunday said a villager was killed in cold blood during the “encounter” with Naxalites, as claimed by the security forces in Latehar, and demanded Rs 20 lakh compensation, a government job for the kin of the deceased and bringing those responsible to book.
The 10-member BJP team comprised the national president of the party’s ST wing, Sameer Oraon and state president of the wing, Shiv Shankar Oraon, among others. They met family members of slain Brahmadev Singh Khairwar, who was killed reportedly in the encounter on June 12, at their home in Piri village under Garu block.
The party has also decided to write to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and the National Human Rights Commission for an impartial probe into the incident and action against the erring security personnel.
Shiv Shankar Oraon said Brahmadev Singh and five other villagers were attacked by the security forces when they were leaving for the forest for the ceremonial hunting on the occasion of Sarhul. “We spoke to Ginenath Singh Khairwar, who received a bullet wound on his hand but was saved somehow and also to Basanti Devi, sister of the slain villager, who was an eyewitness to most of the events of that incident,” he said.
Demanding a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the family members and a government’s job to the victim’s widow identified as Jeeramani Devi, Oraon said the entire family has been affected by Brahmadev’s death. “He is survived by a one-year-old child and his wife who is an intermediate pass. So she should be given a job,” Oraon said.
Elaborating on the findings of the team, Oraon said six villagers — Brahmadev, Ginenath, Rajeshwar, Raghunath, Sukuldev and Govindar (all from the Khairwar tribal community) had set out for the forest on June 12 morning when they came under fire from a distance. “They were going for hunting and once they heard the gunshots, they raised their arms in surrender besides shouting that they were just villagers,” Oraon said, quoting Basanti Devi. He further said despite their surrender call, the security forces continued to fire and Ginenath was shot in the hand while Brahmadev was hit by the bullet in his leg. “Ginenath ran away along with the other four but Brahmadev was stuck there and he was shot again when he tried to get up,” Oraon said.
Quoting the wife and the mother of the victim, Oraon said the security personnel came to their house to collect the Aadhaar card and dragged a severely injured Brahmadev to the forest again. “Basanti said they could hear three gunshots from the forest later and when they saw the body, all bullets hit his forehead,” Oraon said. The probe team also noticed that the clothes Brahmadev was wearing while setting out for the forest were changed by the security men.
Oraon also said, “We were told by the villagers that the security men were from the state police and the Jharkhand Jaguar (JJ).” Asked if there were security men from the central forces as well, he added, “Going by the villagers’ version, they were state police and JJ personnel and may not be able to distinguish between central and state forces.”
It may be noted that the CRPF had sent out a press release on June 12 saying a joint operation comprising two troops of 203 CoBRA Battalion, two assault groups of Jharkhand Jaguar and one company of 214 Battalion of the CRPF was going on in the forests of Latehar where the encounter took place around 8.30 am.
DIG (Palamu range) R K Lakra had also said they were looking into the incident to identify the claims of the villagers and the security forcers.