Pathalgadi leaders abduct 3 guards
RANCHI: A mob of about 300 Pathalgadi supporters on Tuesday abducted three house guards of BJP’S Khunti parliamentarian and former Lok Sabha deputy speaker Karia Munda from his ancestral house in retaliation to the crackdown on their leaders accused of ‘masterminding’ the gang rape of five anti-human trafficking activists on June 19.
In the morning, around 500 police personnel raided Udbhuru village in Khunti district to arrest Pathalgarhi leaders Yusuf Purty and John Jonas Tidu, whom the police claimed, had instigated the perpetrators to gang rape the five women who were performing in a street play when they were abducted at gunpoint by six men and later gang raped in a forest.
Before the houses of the leaders could be raided, the police claimed that the villagers raised an alarm helping the leaders escape.
The administration had deputed a large contingent of security forces — about 500 Jharkhand police and CRPF personnel — to enter the village.
Around 2,000 of the villagers prevented the team from entering the village, they said. The police resorted to a cane-charge to quell the mob, they added.
“We went to arrest Tidu and Purty in the morning. It seems that Pathalgarhi supporters
helped them to escape but we have attached their properties,” said Khunti SP Ashwini Kumar Sinha.
Retaliating to the police crackdown, nearly 300 villagers flocked to Karia Munda’s home in Chandidih village and abducted three Jharkhand police guards posted identified as Subodh Kujur, Vinod Kerketta and Suyom Surin, who were posted there. They also snatched their rifles, police said.
“Munda’s house guards were abducted. All measures have been taken and searches have been intensified to rescue them,” said additional director general (operation) of police RK Mallick.
In the evening, Pathalgadi leaders expressed a willingness to hold talks to release the house guards and asked the authorities to send a team of five officials only. The police was yet to respond to their demand.
Last week, a Christian priest Fr Alfanso Aien, of the Mission school from where the women were abducted, was arrested for allegedly trying to hushing up the crime.
Two others accused in the case were also arrested the same day. Additional director general (operation) RK Mallick said the two accused, identified as Ajub Sandi and Ashish Longo, had confessed to the crime and also shooting a video of it and forcing the survivors to drink urine on directions from Tidu, who wanted to teach them a lesson for entering the village.
Pathalgadi is a practice adopted by tribal villages in which they declare their gram sabha as a sovereign authority rejecting the central or state government’s jurisdiction.