Ranchi, Jan. 24: Contrary to the fancy police version of a raging two-hour encounter, the lone survivor of the bloodbath at Boda village in Chandwa, Pradeep Oraon, today had a different tale to tell.
Oraon, given up for dead, is undergoing treatment at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) and claimed that they were sleeping on a haystack when bullets began to rain. He lost consciousness and has no clue about the identity of the assailants.
Oraon claimed that he and his two cousins, Jeevan and Mathura, had been ordered by three Maoists to accompany them and show them the way. ?We are not party people,? pleaded Oraon desperately while remonstrating that they had no choice but to accompany the Maoists.
Oraon, who works as a coolie at Gardag village, claims that the three Maoists had dinner at a neighbour?s house before they knocked on their door and asked them to act as escorts. Gardag is nearly 4 km from Boda and the visit of Maoists, claimed Oraon, was hardly uncommon. On this occasion, Oraon said, he did not see them carrying arms. Reluctant to venture out alone, Oraon says he persuaded his cousins to accompany him. The group reached the outskirts of Boda around midnight, found a thatched roof over a haystack and prepared to sleep. While he and his cousins wanted to return, the Maoists ordered them to stay back, he claimed.
They were awakened by shouts of ?Kaun hai re; maaro saalon ko? which indicated that the intruders were intoxicated. Before the group could take any protective cover, the assailants opened fire.
Oraon on Monday appeared genuinely remorseful about his dead cousins and repeatedly said their families now had nobody to look after them. He also appeared scared and believes that he cannot return to his village. If two groups of Maoists are fighting , he reasoned, sooner or later he would be bumped off.
More details, meanwhile, surfaced about the Sangharsh Jan Mukti Manch ( SJMM), a breakaway faction of the Maoists, which carried out the ambush in Chandwa. Police officers privately admitted that the group was initially patronised by the police to take on the Naxalites. It has now become a frankenstein and has begun to haunt the police.
The group, aided and armed by the police, has grown into band of bandits. They are sworn enemies of the Maoists, who despise them for giving the Naxalites a bad name, and for sheer survival developed into a private army with Loha Singh and Teja Singh as commanders. The police now grudgingly admit that the group is engaged in several criminal activities ranging from highway robbery to extortion.
Zonal I-G Rajeev Kumar confirmed that the group was formed by people who were discarded by the Maoists or those who deserted the Maoists after usurping a part of the levy.
collected for the party. The outfit gained strength by including local criminals.
A section of the police blame Rameshwar Oraon, now the Congress MP from Lohardaga, of having masterminded the strategy of playing SJMM against the naxals. While Oraon himself rubbishes the aspersion, a section of the politicians also accuse the police of having turned a blind eye to the criminal activities of the SJMM. What else can explain the fact that nobody from this group has ever been apprehended or killed, they asked. Some of them even believe that the group supported Rameshwar Oraon?s candidature in the last general election.
The Maoists are sure to retaliate, feel police officers. And since the private army of the SJMM move in a large group, an equally large group of Maoists can be expected to take them on. Another bloodbath in Chandwa-Latehar-Lohardaga area, therefore, is just a matter of time.
