RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, March 16: A mob of around 200 unscrupulous elements today ransacked Naveen Sarna Hostel, where around 150 tribal students from different parts of the state stay to shape their academic careers.
It was getting around 9.30 am when the mob armed with axe, sword, spade, shovel and sticks besides other traditional weapons barged in the hostel campus spread in about 80 decimal areas besides Harmu rivulet in Ganga Nagar under Sukhdevnagar police station, and started damaging the properties of the tribal students.
The mob destroyed all the prepared food of the mess and damaged the clay oven being used to prepare food besides damaging the asbestos roof and basin of washrooms. The mob also dropped the water tank into the well, threatening students with dire consequences of staying there.
Spokesperson of Adivasi Sena Amarnath Lakra, who also stays there, informed about the incident saying a student also sustained an injury in the incident.
“A student sustained a head injury in the attack. He, however, is out of danger and safe,” Lakra said.
A social worker residing in the locality Shashi Panna, who rushed for the rescue of the students, confirmed the incident saying if police had acted properly such an incident would have never taken place.
“After students informed police, a PCR van reached the spot. But the number of police was hardly three in it and sensing trouble the van returned without taking any action on those in the mob attack. After the PCR van returned, senior police officials reached the spot after four hours. The attitude of the officer-in-charge was not supportive. She talked rudely when informed about the incident,” Panna said.
Contacted officer-in-charge of Sukhdevnagar police station Mamta Kumari for her comment in the matter, she confirmed the incident saying ‘a formal FIR is yet to be registered in this connection.’
Asked about the reason, she said, “there is some dispute over land ownership and a matter relating to it is pending before the court.” Probed further she expressed her inability to give any conclusive statement in the matter saying the matter is yet to be probed. She also could not share the action she had taken in the matter so far.
