Five members of a tribal family including a five year old kid were found brutally murdered at their residence in Buruhatu Amtola of the Kamdara block on Wednesday, setting panic among people of Gumla.

As the news came out, Gumla SP H.P. Janardhan rushed to the site to take stock of the incident. Kamdara Police, on the other hand, pressed a sniffer dog to kick-start probe into the gruesome murder.

Those found dead were identified as Nikudin Toppo (60), wife Josphina Toppo (55), their son Vincent (35), daughter-in-law Shivani (30) and the elderly couple’s grandson Balwina.

According to police, Nikudin, Vincent and Balwina were found hacked to death in one room while Nikudin was discovered dead at the veranda of their kutcha house. Josphina was found lying dead on the bed inside another room.

Villagers sit outside the house of the victims. Bhola Prasad

“They were hit by a rod and later hacked to death. Going by the crime scene, there was more than one criminal,” said an official, who was part of the probe team that visited the village in the morning.

Police believe that the murder occurred in the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. A few villagers raised alarm early morning after spotting a body in a pool of blood.

“It could be a case of some personal enmity of someone with the family, related to either land or something else. The bodies have been sent for the post mortem and further probe is on,” said the official, adding that preliminary interaction with the villagers didn’t yield much information as yet.

“Many claimed that the family didn’t have any enmity with anyone in the village and that they eked out living through agriculture. But without a strong motive, no one would resort to such gruesome murder,” he said.

Janardhan assured to crack the case soon. “We are probing from all possible angles using scientific methods based on the circumstantial evidence from the spot and will soon crack the case,” he said.