The Kashi Baba diara where the ambush took place. Telegraph picture

Bhagalpur, Feb. 14: A step taken by the Munger police to trace the culprits involved in the killing of 13 Maoists on November 29, last year at Kashi Baba diara under Harinmar panchayat has snowballed into a major controversy.

A particular community in the diara of the locality has raised fingers at the police and the alleged conspiracy behind the cops harassing innocent people. They alleged the police are acting on the direction of an influential community.

“Members of an influential community are conspiring to suppress us and have decided not to allow any representative of our community to win the panchayat seats in these areas,” a villager said.

The recent arrest of Ram Vilash Nisad, a zila parisad member and Bindeshwari Bind, member of Bariarpur panchayat samity in connection with Kashi Baba diara incident, has added fuel to the fire.

Sources at Bariarpur claimed that the Khagaria police recently submitted the list of people of Harinmar diara, who are said to be involved in the killing of 13 Naxalites at Kashi Baba diara. The two public representatives of the area were arrested on the instruction of the leaders of the influential community, the villagers alleged. The villagers said those Naxalites who managed to escape unhurt from Kashi Baba on November 29 evening after 13 of their comrades were ambushed at the hands of local Bind gangsters, were natives of Khagaria.

“The Khagaria police failed to trace the Naxalites in the district and did not take any initiative to search them. But on the other hand, they promptly started harassing the community members of the diara falling under Munger district,” said a former community leader on condition of anonymity. According to him, most of the people of the community have started migrating from the region out of fear of police as well as the Maoists. “Please don’t quote any of us because it could prove fatal for us,” he said.

He alleged that one officer-in-charge of a police station at Khagaria was the mastermind behind the police atrocity against the community leaders before the ensuing panchayat polls. “The policeman is also from the influential community and his driver (also from the same community) has a close relative at Harinmar diara. The relative of the driver is a mukhia at the diara, who is facing threats from his rival who hails from our community. Thus, the Mukhia conspired against us with the help of influential people,” he said.

A.K. Ambedkar, inspector-general of police, Bhagalpur range, however, said: “The police are acting against the killing of 13 Maoists by the goons of a particular community, who subsequently snatched their sophisticated weapons. Why should we be prejudiced against any community? The reality is that the community members, particularly their leaders in that diara, provided patronage to the goons involved in the incident. We have enough evidence against them.”

Observers, said former SP, Munger, M. Sunil Naik also claimed that he was under pressure from the state police headquarters to arrest villagers of a particular community of Harinmar diara for the killing of Naxalites.

“The government, which is always under pressure from the Maoists in this region, again started acting on their choice. On the other hand, the community, which is under the scanner has a sizable number of members in the rebel group particularly in eastern Bihar. To avoid any untoward Naxalite incident, the government seems to act in favour of the interests of the community,” an observer said.