Parvati (22), one of the victims, being shifted to PMCH in Dhanbad. Four others, Jayanti Soren (26), Sanjay Murmu (25), Dinesh (25) and Nilesh Hansda (3), were also admitted to the hospital for treatment. Dinesh, who could hardly speak lying on the hospital stretcher with blood-stained clothes, murmured that he was sitting next to Anup Marandi and Nunulal Marandi, Babulal Marandi’s son and brother respectively, to watch the orchestra. “I saw some men dressed in white clothes spraying bullets from sophisticated firearms,” he said. Picture by Gautam Dey

Bokaro, Oct. 27: A pall of gloom descended on the hamlet of Kafitola (Maango) in Tupkadih, around 20km from Bokaro, as the news of Anup Marandi’s death reached the villagers early on Saturday morning.

The hamlet with a population of around 500 people houses Anup’s in-laws’ home.

Though the son of former chief minister Babulal Marandi, the young Anup, who was doted upon by his in-laws, had no airs about him. Whenever he visited Kafitola, he showed respect to all the residents.

Barely four months ago, Anup got married to Wilsy Kumari (19), from a poor family.

When this correspondent reached Kafitola, the entire Soren family, barring Wilsy’s cousin Santosh Soren, had left for Chilkhari.

“When the news of death reached us, scores of people rushed to our place. As the news was passed to me, the womenfolk broke into loud wails,” said an inconsolable Santosh.

In between the wails, there were two questions on everybody’s lips. “How would Wilsy spend the rest of her life?” and “Why did the Naxalites kill a young, promising tribal youth taking his examinations to land a white-collar job?”

When the news was broken to Anup’s mother-in-law, wailing at top of her voice, she rushed to her son and asked him to take her to see Anup’s body, referring to him as “an innocent youth, harmless from the core of his heart”.

“Is this how the Maoists want to bring about a change in the society and try to prove that they were working for the tribals and the downtrodden,” asked Bhuvneshwar Soren, a cousin of Wilsy, crying incessantly, while talking to The Telegraph.

Another elder of the hamlet, R. Babu, said that nobody ever saw Anup talking loudly. He promised that he would get the area developed.

“Whenever he visited his in-laws’ place, Anup would talk to the local youths till late into the evening. He would tell them to complete their studies so that they could get good jobs and help change the standard of life in the hamlet. Anup would even refer various books, journals and competitive magazines that could help the youths in cracking competitive examinations.

Even the women of the area felt proud of having a sweet and well-behaved son-in-law. The goodwill that the Maoists had earned in the rural areas over several years is bound to suffer a setback with Anup’s killing.