Police on Wednesday recovered two banners and two posters, apparently pasted by the banned CPI (Maoists), asking locals to boycott the upcoming General Elections in Bundu block of Ranchi.
The posters, carrying messages handwritten with red ink, also demanded action against police personnel involved in fake encounters and cancellation of all the Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) signed by the government. Besides, the posters sought immediate withdrawal of the Land Acquisition laws in Jharkhand.
An officer posted at Bundu, said that investigation was in process to ascertain if the posters were pasted by the banned rebel outfit or local nuisance mongers.
Ranchi Superintendent of Police (Rural), Ashutosh Shekhar said the police were conducting raids in different locations in and around Bundu to catch hold of men who may have been involved in pasting the posters.
“We are assuming for now that the CPI (Maoist) rebels have pasted the posters. This area has been a sensitive zone in the past, so a thorough investigation is in process,” he said.
The CPI (Maoists), an organization that has its presence in 18 of 24 districts here, is against the idea of India’s current democratic practices. The radical group, which believes in “people’s government”, has been involved in several incidents involving ruthless killings of cops and politicians in the state.
Bundu, which is a part of the Ranchi parliamentary constituency, is said to have a strong presence of the left wing rebels.
Incarcerated former Area Commander of the CPI (Maoists), Kundan Pahan was once a terror in the adjoining areas of Bundu and Tamar. Pahan, who surrendered to the police in 2017, is accused of killing former Jamshedpur MP Sunil Mahato, former Tamar MLA Ramesh Munda and Bundu DSP Pramod Kumar. The CPI (Maoists) was behind the coldblooded beheading of police inspector Francis Induwar in 2009. His decapitated body was recovered from the same Bundu-Tamar stretch off the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway.
Ranchi will go to polls on May 6, and the police are on their toes to avert any untoward incident during the polling period in the rural areas of the constituency.
Apart from the CPI (Maoists), there are at least 17 splinter outfits active in Jharkhand. These outfits too are likely to try and sabotage the elections, thereby increasing the challenges for the law enforcement agencies here.