80-year-old priest ‘boycotted, beaten up’ by villagers
RANCHI: An 80-year-old priest from Gola village in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand on Wednesday alleged that he was boycotted and beaten up by villagers who also threatened to throw him out of the hamlet dominated by backward caste families.
The priest Neelmani Mishra lodged a complaint at the Janata Darbar chaired by Jharkhand minister Randhir Singh, at the chief minister’s secretariat in Ranchi.
He said, “My three brothers have already left the village with their families because of growing intolerance among villagers.”
J hark hand has already witnessed cases of communal disharmony and protests by locals against being tagged as Hindus.
Mishra said, “There are some Pathaks (Brahmin surname) who stay at the outskirts of our village. But they too live in fear.”
District welfare officer Ramesh Kumar Chowbey said, “Such incidents are not solely related to caste conflicts. Other factors are also responsible for it.”
He added, “The character of the person and his activities play a crucial role. However, nobody has the right to force a person to leave his village.”
When the issue was raised before deputy commissioner (DC) of Ramgarh A Doddey, he said he could not comment on the matter before a thorough probe into it.
But he said he had never come across any such incident in his 11-month tenure as Ramgarh DC.
Doddey had also received a call from the chief minister’s secretariat on Wednesday to conduct a probe into the matter.
Ramgarh superintendent of police M Tamilwanan told HT that though land disputes led to such incidents, he could not say anything about that particular case.
Mishra said he had one fourth share of a three-acre land, which other villagers wanted to acquire.
Mishra, a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), said, “I had approached the organisation for help but it could not do anything.”
Ajay Jaiswal from Association for Social and Human Awareness (ASHA), an NGO, working against witch-hunting and social evils said, “I came across some caste-related disputes in Odisha. But such cases are not prevailing in Jharkhand. Maybe, caste system still prevails in some pockets of the state.”
My three brothers have already left the village with their families because of growing intolerance among villagers. There are some Pathaks who stay at the outskirts of our village. But they too live in fear.
NEELMANI MISHRA, priest