VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Mar 15: For former Jamshedpur MP Suman Mahto, Holi is no occasion to celebrate, rather it scratches her old wounds. 15 years back her husband Sunil Mahto, the then sitting JMM MP and a popular leader was allegedly gunned down by the left-wing extremists of the CPI (Maoist) on March 4, 2007, when he was watching a football match at Ghatshila on the day of Holi.
The CBI took over the Sunil Mahto murder probe in 2008, and in 2010 it charge-sheeted Ranjit Pal alias Rahul of the CPI (Maoist) as the mastermind. But she is not satisfied with the CBI investigation.
“For the past five years, I have been demanding the state and the central government to hand over the investigation of this case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) but my request fell on deaf ears,” Suman Mahto said.
Notably, on Monday, the former deputy chief minister and Ajsu Party president Sudesh Mahto suggested the Hemant Soren government should hand over the investigation of the murder case of Shaktinath Mahto, Nirmal Mahto, and Sunil Mahto to the NIA. All the three were JMM leaders and towering figures of the separate Jharkhand movement. Sudesh Mahto said these were political murders and the mastermind must be exposed and arrested.
Suman Mahto said that it gave her a sense of satisfaction that someone demanded the probe by the NIA. “But I don’t know whether the government will positively consider this popular demand. In 2017 I had requested the Raghubar Das government to take steps so that this case is transferred to the NIA. I remember having made correspondence with the state and central government and the NIA. But these remained unanswered. I want to know why my husband was killed,” she said.
Asked the reason for dissatisfaction with the CBI probe, Suman Mahto said that the CBI probe actually made no headway other than filing the charge sheet.
What upset her is that the CBI could not question Rahul who surrendered before Bengal police in January 2017 with his wife Anita. The CBI sources said that the West Bengal government did not grant permission to question him.
A dreaded Naxal operating on the Jharkhand-Bengal border, Rahul was wanted in 17 Maoist cases in East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum district. He carried cash prizes of Rs 25 lakh (Jharkhand Police) and Rs 5 lakh (CBI) on his head.
