Jamshedpur, July 18: Over half-a-dozen employees of Kharsawan-based Corporate Ispat and Alloy Limited, an Abhijit Group subsidiary, and a police officer were injured when irate villagers attacked the project site of the steel plant this morning over rumours about two children being sacrificed.

The iron rod carrying villagers ransacked the premises of the integrated steel plant, located about 60km from here, and assaulted company employees including the chief construction manager, S. Ramakrishnan and accounts official P. Garg.

Tempers ran high as the 400-strong mob attacked officer-in-charge of Kharsawan police station Animesh Gupta who suffered multiple injuries. Section 144 had to be imposed to bring the situation under control.

Trouble started when one Santosh Singh, a resident of Ramgarh, came to the project site. He was accompanied by two of his children —Bulu (3) and Bajrangi (4). A group of villagers found his behaviour suspicious and stopped him to find out why he was visiting the project site with his children. When they did not find his answers satisfactory, they caught hold of him and spread the rumour that he brought the children at the project site for sacrificing.

The rumour spread quickly and soon hundreds of villagers descended on the project site. The irate mob vented its ire on the suspect and also on the security personnel on duty. They managed to barge into the project site and ransacked the offices.

Seraikela-Kharsawan SP Abhishek Kumar said it was just a rumour that led to the incident. “We verified the facts. Santosh Singh, a native of Ramgarh, had come to seek a job. Two of his brothers are already working at the project site. We have imposed prohibitory orders in and around the site,” he said. No arrests had been made till the time of filing this report.

The senior police officer added that they have begun investigations into what led to the attack. According to him, two injured employees of the company were airlifted to Apollo Hospital in Ranchi. The injured were accompanied by company CEO Arun Gupta on the helicopter. Officer in charge of Kharsawan police station was undergoing treatment at a hospital in the district. Seraikela-Kharsawan DC A.K. Mishra visited the spot to take stock of the situation.

In Ranchi, company officials called on chief minister Arjun Munda to apprise him about the situation. Munda directed the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police to send him a report.

A spokesperson of Corporate Ispat Alloys Limited, Rahul Deo, termed the incident unfortunate. “The company has no role to play in whatever has happened. Work has been stopped after the attack,” he said.

Corporate Ispat Alloys Limited is setting up a 2.5 million tonne integrated steel plant and a 280MW power plant in Kharsawan at an investment of Rs 10,850 crore. The first phase of the unit is scheduled to be commissioned in March next year.

The total investments of the group in Jharkhand is more Rs 20,000 crore.