A row has erupted in the northern most district of Chhattisgarh state, Balrampur, after members of the Hindu outfits protested against the police theory behind the death of a Bajrang Dal worker whose body was recovered from a forest area a few kilometres away from Balrampur town on May 27.
The double murder incident, which has sent shockwaves across the region, came to light after the bodies of Bajrang Dal Jila Sah Sanyojak, Sujit Soni, and a woman were recovered from Dumrukhi forest near National Highway 343.
According to the reports, the Balrampur police have arrested as many as three suspects in the case who have allegedly confessed about their involvement in the crime.
The accused have reportedly disclosed that they had set up electrified wires in the forest to trap wild animals during a hunting exercise. The police, following the disclosure of the accused have also recovered linked material from the spot. The arrest of the alleged accused by the police has come in the wake of assurance given by the police to the local Hindu outfits to arrest the culprits involved in the crime at earliest.
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Though the theory of the police has not boded well with the Hindu outfits that hit the streets on Thursday, May 30, demanding the arrest of the actual perpetrators behind the brutal murder,. In the videos pertaining to the protests, the agitated members of the Hindu outfits, along with the locals, can be seen protesting and raising slogans against the police and the administration.
Speaking to the Organiser correspondent, one of the activists familiar with the protest alleged that there are other possible angles to the incident that should be thoroughly investigated. We cannot believe anything that is conveyed to us. “Sujit was active against the cow smugglers in the region and had received threats from them around a fortnight ago.”.
Meanwhile, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has also written a letter to the state’s Chief Minister, Vishnu Deo Sai, demanding the immediate arrest of the accused in the case.
In the letter/memorandum submitted via the district magistrate, VHP has alleged that Sujit had informed the senior leaders of the organisation about the threats being received by him on his phone.
Further, the members of the VHP in the memorandum have claimed that Sujit and the woman were murdered brutually, following which their bodies have been thrown in forest. ‘Both Sujit and the girl were having injury marks on their bodies of being attacked by a sharp weapon and being electrocuted, one of Sujit’s fingers was also broken,’ read VHP’s memorandum further.
The memorandum submitted by VHP also talks about the similar murder of Dharmendra Kesari, a resident of Balrampur, whose body was also traced in a forest following his murder around six months ago.
Citing the similarities between both incidents, VHP has stated that the culprits of Kesari’s murder are still not apprehended by the police, which showcases that the murderers have no fear of the law, leading to reoccurrence of such incidents.
Further, while demanding a compensation of Rs1 crore for the family of the deceased Bajrang Dal worker, VHP has also pointed out about the need of a stringent law against cow smuggling in the state.
It is pertinent to mention here that the state of Chhattisgarh witnessed a similar protest from VHP and other Hindu outfits after a cowshed worker, Sadhram Yadav, was brutally murdered over a minor scuffle in Lalpur Kala village in Kawardha district on January 20.
The incident triggered massive protest from the local Hindu community and Hindu outfits, who demanded immediate arrests of the accused, after which the police nabbed all six accused in the case, including a minor.
Further investigation into the case led to emergence of disturbing details about a few accused, including frequent visit of one of them to Kashmir and associations of another accused to suspicious individuals. Later on the state government on persistent demand by the family members of deceased, recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) enquiry into the case in February.
Notably, the otherwise peaceful state of Chhattisgarh has witnessed a rising trend of communal scuffles in recent years, including the much talked Biranpur incident where a Hindu youth was killed by a mob following a minor scuffle under Saja police station limits of Bemetra in April last year.
