Protests erupt over 30-yr-old’s death in police firing in Godda
A day after 30-yearold Harinarayan Pahadiya was killed in a police firing during a raid conducted at the house of a criminal in Bada Daga Para village in Godda on Wednesday night, massive protests erupted on Thursday, demanding a highlevel probe into the matter.
A press release by the Godda police stated that the police team went to the village on a tip-off to arrest Benedict Hembrom, an accused under the Arms Act.
A person started running away from the house, after which the ASI Rajnath Yadav instructed him to stop. However, during the process of chasing the criminals, a gunshot was fired by Yadav, due to which he received an injury in his left shoulder, the statement said.
“Police immediately rushed him to Sundarpahari Community Health Centre where he died during treatment,” said the press release, adding that the police suspended the accused Yadav and arrested him.
However, the leaders of the Pahadiya tribe, the community to which the deceased belonged, staged a massive protest over the incident on Thursday.
They stopped the ambulance carrying the body of the deceased after post-mortem at Sundar Pahari block headquarters and refused to receive the body. The issue was resolved after the arrival of Vijay Hansda, Rajmahal MP, and JPN Chaudhary, sub-divisional police officer, who provided immediate compensation worth ₹1 lakh through Amit Sharma, the block development officer of Sundar Pahari, officials said.
Hansda, while talking to Hindustan Times, said, “Besides the compensation worth ₹1 lakh paid immediately to dependents of the deceased, the process has been initiated to provide ₹4 lakh more and meanwhile, we are also planning to provide another assistance worth ₹5 lakh meant for the tribals.”
“The police have already suspended and arrested the accused ASI and questioning will be carried out by other policemen of the raiding team to carry out further probe as a case has already been lodged about the incident,” said Hansda.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Babulal Marandi, said the killing of an innocent tribal youth by police is “an issue of concern”. “Although, how the youth of primitive tribes have been killed in the state earlier under the present JMM-Congress Government indicates that the issue is being hushed up again,” further said Marandi and demanded the Director-General of Police to constitute a special investigating team in the case and take strict action against the guilty policemen of the incident.