M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, April 24: Chhipadohar police in Latehar district are bewildered as to why the family cremated the IED blast victim without a postmortem. Local police too were not informed.
Although the incident happened on Friday, the Chhipadohar police remained perturbed for the whole of Saturday, not knowing how to proceed when the body of the Naxal violent was burnt by the family itself without a post mortem.
1976 born as per Aadhar card of Oraon tribal woman identified as Sakinta Devi got her leg blown up in the booby trap laid by the Maoists in the Bulbul jungle.
The additional director general of police operations, Sanjay Anand Lathkar, said that the woman died a miserable death. Lohardaga and Latehar police are looking into it.
“The booby traps laid by the Maoists indicate their own insecurity and no respect for the lives of the poor who go into the jungles to rummage through minor forest produce there to keep them alive, and these deceitful traps kill them for no fault of their own. The actions of the Maoists are barbaric and anti-humanity, for which the Naxals must answer, “ADG Lathkar added.
“We have been asking the Maoists to refrain from using improvised explosive devices as there can’t be any more cowardice than this. The real face of the Maoists, which is anti poor and anti common man, is now before the masses, “Lathkar further added.
Officer in charge of the Chhipadohar police station in Latehar district Biswajeet Tiwary confirmed the family of the deceased woman Sakinta Devi cremated her without informing the police and the post mortem on Friday. Sakinta Devi was the wife of Chaitu Oraon.
The family was asked by us as to why they cremated her without informing the police and post mortem they had no answer to it said Biswajeet. She was cremated at Ganeshpur about 70 kilometres away from the Chhipadohar police station in Latehar district.
Post mortem was most mandatory in this case as it would have benefitted the deceased family in getting ex gratia assistance. The family of the deceased is now worried about what it did.
Police officer Tiwary said, “The woman went to collect dry wood and Mahua fruits in the Bulbul jungle on Friday when her legs fell on the improvised explosive device laid by the Maoists there, which took the toll of her life.”
The deceased woman hailed from Chando village, under the Ramgarh police station in Palamu district. She has come to the village of Ganeshpur, where her daughter lives. And here she went to the Bulbul jungle for some mundane forest produce where this tragedy occurred to her on Friday.
Bulbul jungle is less of a jungle and more of a deceptive mine field said a police officer requesting for anonymity.
No one has any idea as to how many booby traps are there and which chunk of the jungle is any free of it reminded this police officer.
Sources said security forces here had a long drawn battle with the Maoists where for the first time in the annals of the anti naxal operation in Jharkhand the Maoists fled like anything only to be caught by police. As battle with the naxals is always a ding ding dong battle, security forces too had had its share of huge misfortunes in terms of injuries and loss of lives as well.
