Four persons, including a woman rebel have been arrested by Dumka Police in connection with the Naxal attack on the polling party at Asna village of Shikaripara killing five policemen and three polling officials on April 24.
“A total of four persons - Buddhinath, Som Bharti, Baburam Baski and Tala Kudi Murmu have been arrested so far in this connection. Buddhinath happens to be the key player in the incident who was quite active in the area for the last few months,” said Dumka IG Umesh
Kumar Singh. Buddhinath and Bharti happen to be own brothers, he added.
According to the IG, Buddhinath and Bharti were arrested on Friday from Asanbani village while the other two accused Baburam and Tala Kudi Murmu were arrested on Tuesday from Shikaripara Chowk.
Buddhinath, being the key player behind the landmine blast was assigned the task of planting two can bombs on the spot but could not plant the second one as people started commuting on the road with sun coming up the sky, said the IG.
“The arrested persons have confessed that the
landmine attack was basically done with an intention of looting arms and damaging the police force,” the IG said.
As per the police source, the landmine was planted by Buddhinath along with some other people in the night of April 19 after a thorough monitoring of the area. The police, considering the second landmine to have been planted somewhere in the area, are still searching for it.
“Buddhinath, who brought the tiffin- box from the nearby Barahmasia village for Rs1,043 to plant bomb in it, was conducting meetings at various places with his supporters in the area,” said
the source. Some Gram Pradhans, PDS dealers as well as para teachers of the area are also said to be involved in the conspiracy. Buddhinath also confessed that he was given Rs1,000 as reward money to celebrate after he succeeds in blowing up the bomb and killing the policemen. Police sources also confirmed that Buddhinath had also been assigned to motivate the young minds and prepare a youth brigade in the area and had prepared a group of 28 rebels, for which police have launched an extensive search
operations. He had recently conducted a camp in Rajpara to motivate the villagers and said to have distributed medicines among them.