FIR against 214 in J’khand killings case

JAMSHEDPUR: Jharkhand police on Friday has named 14 persons in the first information report lodged for killing of seven antipathalgadi villagers in Burugulikera village in West Singhbhum district, a day after their bodies were buried in the village amid heavy police presence. Police said another 200 unidentified persons have been named in the FIR lodged under relevant sections of the IPC for rioting and murder.

None of the villagers including the family members of those killed participated in the burial just outside the village, said district’s superintendent of police, Indrajit Mahatha, who will supervise the eight member special investigation team constituted on Thursday night to probe the killing. The SIT was constituted after chief minister Hemant Soren’s visit to the village.

The police had so far maintained that the killing was result of a dispute between the pro- and anti-pathalgadi groups in the village on January 16, which further escalated on January 19, when the seven were badly beaten up in the village gram sabha (a body of all villagers) and beheaded in a nearby forests, where their bodies were found on Tuesday.

In 2017, tribals in Khunti and West Singhbhum districts had started a Pathagadi movement, where stone slabs were erected declaring self-governance and prohibiting entry of non-tribals to protest against then BJP government’s attempt to acquire tribal land for development projects.

On Friday, police officials said that the first arrests in the killing could be announced on Saturday. “We have been interrogating the three persons detained in connection with the mass-killing of seven villagers in the night of January 19. We hope first results in the form of arrests may happen tomorrow,” said a SIT official said, who was not willing to be named.

The police also named 14 propathalgadi villagers as accused in the case including former village head Ranshi Budh, who is absconding.