A day after the 12 Maoists were gunned down near Bakoria village in Palamu, one villager in Gumla got killed during the gun battle between the security forces and the CPI (Maoists). The encounter took place in the Katkahi jungles of Gumla under Chainpur police station during a regular search operation by the security forces. Three Maoists, however, got arrested during the whole exercise.
“The villager has been identified as Kristopher Giddha of Ghorathi village. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Chainpur during treatment. A helicopter was rushed to Chainpur to bring the injured Kristopher to Ranchi for better medical assistance but, it was too late,” said Ranchi range DIG Arun Kumar Singh. The DIG, following the incident, rushed to Chainpur to take stock of the situation.
Singh added that the three Maoists, including one zonal commander Prasad Ji, alias Ashok lakra, along with the two other platoon members — Jeevan lakra and Francis Toppo — have been arrested during the operation. Six regular weapons, including one police 303 rifle, one 3006 Springfield automatic rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition, country-made hand grenades and uniforms along with some Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been recovered from there.
“Prasad Ji is the right hand of Nakul Yadav and one of main Naxal leaders, involved in kidnapping of children in the Gumla’s Banalat-lohardagga- latehar tri-junction area. So, it is a major compliance of honourable High Court’s direction,” said ADG (Operations) SN Pradhan.
Prasad Ji, according to the police sources, is said to be in close contact with top Maoist leader Arvind and Zonal Commander Nakul Yadav. Meanwhile in Palamu, family members of some of the Maoists have gradually started turning up to claim the bodies of Naxals, who were killed during Tuesday’s encounter. Bodies were being handed over to the families without creating any problem.
“We have no any enmity with the family members and those approaching us for the body are being handed over to them after verifying the credentials,” said Palamu SP Patel Mayur Kanhiaya lal.
Family members of four Maoists, Ejaz Ahmad, Yogesh Yadav, Santosh Yadav and Devraj Yadav, turned up on Wednesday from Pratapur in Chatra to claim the bodies. Before handing over to their family members, X-ray of all the 12 bodies were done to find out any pre-killing torture or atrocity committed against the deceased by the security forces. None of the X-rays, however, showed any brutalities, the sources added.
Patel added that six out of the 12 bodies have so far been identified. Post-mortems of all the 12 bodies were held in the presence of forensic expert of RIMS Dr BP Chourasia. Twelve Maoists were killed in the encounter including the zonal commander Anurag Ji alias RK Ji alias Doctor Ji, instrumental in planting bomb in the body of the CRPF personnel killed in an encounter in the Katia Jungels of latehar. The names of some of the remaining Maoists include RK’s son Santosh Yadav, nephew Yogesh Yadav, Charku Oraon of Amwatikar in latehar and Para Teacher Uday Yadav.
Although police claim the encounter as a morale booster for the security forces, some of the human rights organisations have started questioning the circumstances under which the encounter took place. “There are some points which are raising doubts over the circumstances under which the encounter took place. Firstly, no one has been hit below the waist or on the back, if the police claim it to be encounter. Secondly, if it was really an encounter, why even a single bullet could not touch the security forces and lastly, movement of eight rifles by 12 people in one Scorpio was not possible, as being claimed by the Jharkhand Police,” said Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations representative Shashi Bhushan Pathak.
According to Pathak, a fact finding team will be sent soon to the spot and prepare a report on the whole incident after talking to the local people. Meanwhile, they are waiting for more inputs through the media reports. The police, on the other hand, rejected the doubts raised by the human rights organisations and claimed that the Maoists were first asked to surrender but they opened fire forcing the security forces to retaliate.