Laterhar police lodged an FIR against five persons under sections of Arms Act who were mistaken as CPI (Maoist) rebels by the security forest where one of the youths of the group was shot dead by security forces under mistaken identity on Saturday morning.
The incident had taken place in the forest area of Piri- Ganaikhand village under Garu police station area of Latehar district when deceased Brahmadev Singh along with his friends Raghunath Singh, Rajeshwar Singh, Dinanath Singh, Govind Singh and Sukuldeo Singh were venturing in the forest area along with bharathua bandook (archaic gun) to shoot wild boars. The assault team of Jharkhand Jaguar suspected them as rebels. Police said that one of the youths accidently fired out of panic after which security forces also opened fire on them killing Brahmdeo on the spot.
These youths have been booked under section 25 (1) (B) and 27 of Arms Act for possessing firearms. They were carrying bharathua bandook which villagers in Latehar use to kill wild animals. But the specification of even that archaic gun comes under definition of Arms Act.
“But they have not been arrested because they are voluntarily cooperating in the investigation. They have surrendered their weapons. They don’t have any criminal record. They don’t have any association with any rebel group,” said Latehar SP Prashant Anand.
Latehar police has also requested the Crime Investigation Department to take over the investigation of the encounter case.
“As per the guidelines of National Human Rights Commission the case has been handed-over to the CID for fair investigation. Laterhar police will have no role in the investigation,” the SP said. The district police and administration are learnt to have provided some financial assistance to the family of the victim and that of five others. But, the encounter is snowballing into a controversy as several tribal outfits have expressed anger over innocent villagers facing collateral damage of fight between rebels and security forces. Former minister and Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey who visited Latehar on Tuesday demanded a high level inquiry.