In a humane gesture, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan saved the life of a dreaded insurgent, injured during an encounter between the security forces and a banned Left Wing Extremist (LWE) group, by donating blood for transfusion on Monday.
Shomu Purti, a Peoples Liberation Front of India (PLFI) rebel was severely injured during clash with the soldiers of 209 CoBRA battalion in Murhu jungle of Khunti district on January 29. Four other rebels were killed during the encounter, police said.
A bullet had pierced Purti’s cheeks during the crossfire causing severe loss of blood, a CRPF official told this newspaper. Purti was rushed to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi where the doctors said that blood transfusion was a must to save his life.
Soon after learning about the requirement of blood, Jharkhand’s CRPF Inspector General, Sanjay Anand Latkar informed his team. CRPF Jawan Rajkamal was quick to volunteer. After learning that he and the injured rebel had the same blood group, he wasted no time and rushed to RIMS in a bid to save Purti’s life.
“I did what I had to on humanitarian grounds. We have had many clashes in the past, but that doesn’t mean that I will have a personal grudge against them. They are our fellow Indians after all,” Rajkamal said. Rajkamal’s act is particularly surprising since there has been a lot of bad-blood between the CRPF and the PLFI in Jharkhand. Several police personnel have been martyred in ambushes by the PLFI ultras in Jharkhand’s Khunti and SImdega districts in the past. However, for the forces, humanity is of paramount importance, and Rajkamal’s act is evidence to it.
According to figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 18 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected. Apart from CPI (Maoist), there are at least 17 splinter outfits active in the tribal hinterland. A majority of the splinter outfits, police say, are involved in extorting money from businessmen, trafficking children and killing for sport. They have unleashed a reign of terror on innocent villagers here.
PLFI, one of these splinter outfits, was formed by an ex army man Dinesh Gope in 2003.