The State Government will celebrate 200 years of Paika Mutiny in Odisha, but the tribals like Bhuyans and Juangas in Keonjhar district, whose forefathers actively participated in the rebellion, now are meted out harassments by police. The wrong they committed is they cast their vote against the will of local mining mafias in the recently concluded panchayat poll.
According to the allegation of villagers of Suakati panchayat, they elected the Sarpanch and Naib Sarpanch against the ‘fatwa’ issued by the Suakati Railway Siding Agency. On March 10, when Naib Sarpanch election was going on, the mining mafias with some goons barged into the booth and threatened the villagers to vote for their candidate. The police personnel who were present at the panchayat office remained mere spectators.
The police intervened only when the villagers started protesting and sat on dharna. But instead of taking action against the mafias, the police ordered the villagers to lift their dharana and when they did not oblige, they were assaulted, a villager Kamala Dehudi said. A police ASI and more than 20 villagers were injured in a clash that ensued.
On March 15, hundreds of villagers had gone to the district Collector at Keonjhar to complain against the poll mismanagement and terrorizing by the mining mafias in connivance with the local police. But, when they were waiting outside the Collectorate, the police arrested 130 tribals, including 31 women and two minors, in connection with the March 10 incident.
local Sarpanch Taramani Nayak who was also arrested by the police, said she herself was not present during the clash. She also informed that the women arrested by the police were not in anyway connected with the incident, but the police illegally detained them and later forwarded them to court.
Protesting the police brutality and illegal action, the Keonjhar Bhuyan Samaj demanded strict action against the local police and unconditional release of the villagers. It warned to resort to agitation if the demand was not met.