M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 15: CPI Maoists torched eight vehicles and one generator engaged in road construction at Banskarcha under Mahuadanr police station area in Latehar district on Saturday night.
The sub-divisional police officer of Mahuadanr Rajesh Kujur has confirmed the large-scale arson committed by Maoists, numbering 30 to 40, at Baaskarcha.
SDPO Kujur said that the Maoists indulged in torching around 10.15 pm on Saturday night. They were all heavily armed and came on foot.
Barely one and a half kilometres away from the site of the arson, there is a security picket, but the Maoists brazenly did the arson without any fear of the security forces at the picket.
Sources said that no resistance or fightback came from the security personnel located at the picket.
Local police did reach the site of arson at night itself but by then it was all over.
SDPO Kujur said that the Maoists have left behind leaflets. There is a call for the boycott of the panchayat polls.
According to the sources, the Saturday night arson by the Maoists is not even remotely related to the boycott of the panchayat elections. The massive destruction was for cash from the contractor Dilip Pandey.
Kujur agreed that the arson was a terror tactic of the Maoists for the extraction of levy from the contractor of the Mini Construction.
Sources said the Maoists who carried out this arson could be off the squad perched on the infamous Burha Pahar.
The Maoists did not attack any Mini Construction workers, according to SDPO Rajesh Kujur.
Lagatar24.com spoke this morning to the contractor, Dilip Pandey. He said the Maoists had destroyed property worth one crore fifty lakh rupees.
According to Pandey, the Maoists set a trailer, two JCB machines, four water tankers, one 407 type vehicle, and one generator on fire.
Dilip Pandey said that he was never asked for payment of the levy by the Maoists. He did not get any levy calls from the Maoists either.
He was asked if any of the overground activists or couriers of the Maoists ever visited his base camp at Baaskarcha, asking or forcing his base camp workers to call their master for levy.
Pandey said, “A week ago police had asked us to take our road construction tools to some safer places for fear of the Naxals, and our men did it accordingly.”
The local Congress MLA Ramchander Singh said he had got this 29.3-kilometre road between Kuro Baaskarcha sanctioned by the state road construction department.
“The construction work is worth around Rs 82 crores. The foundation of the road was laid barely two and a half months ago. I am shocked to hear of this destruction as this road is vital for the development of the area and such acts of arson defeat the purpose of development,” MLA Singh said.