Jharkhand mob lynching: Adivasis protest police 'inaction', FIR against victims

Counterview Desk
The Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch (JJM), a civil rights network, on Monday sponsored a protest against the police action against the Adivasi victims of the lynching which took on April 10, 2019, in Jurmu village of Dumri block in Gumla district of Jharkhand. The incident led the death of Prakash Lakda, aged 50.
Three other victims from Jurmu – Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj – sustained severe injuries due to the beating by the mob.
Lynched by men from the neighbouring Jairagi village, Jurmu residents, ever since the incident, are being threatened by people from Jairagi, a JJM statement alleges, regretting, the police is not acting against those responsible for what happened on April 10.

A JJM note on the protest:

On April 10, 2019, Prakash Lakda, a 50-year old Adivasi of Jurmu village of Gumla’s Dumri block, was lynched to death by a mob of men from the neighbouring Jairagi village. Three other victims from Jurmu – Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj – sustained severe injuries due to the beating by the mob.
On May 31, 2019, Kendriya Jan Sangharsh Samiti organised a protest against the violence and administrative inaction. Despite this protest, the police has failed to take any action against the perpetrators of the Dumri lynching. The police has in fact charged the surviving victims of the lynching with cow slaughter.
To once again protest against the continued injustice, the Jan Sangharsh Samiti organized a protest today in front of the office of the Gumla Deputy Commissioner. The protest was attended by hundreds of people from not only Gumla, but also from the nearby districts of Ranchi and Latehar.
Today’s protest began with Albert Tigga from the Jan Sangharsh Samiti briefly recollecting the incident of lynching and the fact finding of the incidence and protests against the violence and administrative inaction. The fact finding team clearly established that the owner of the dead ox requested the victims and others of Jurmu village to carve the dead ox. While carving the dead ox, the villagers were attacked by a mob of 35-40 persons from Jairagi village and beaten for hours.
Ashutosh Rahul Tirkey shared that instead of taking action against the perpetrators of violence, the police filed a FIR against the Adivasi victims of the lynching. Further, the Gumla district court has rejected the anticipatory bail filed for these victims.
The court order clarifies that the police did not include the testimonies of the residents of Jurmu in the case diary. Even the testimony of the dead ox owner has not been recorded properly by the police. The facts have been recorded in a distorted manner in favor of the perpetrators of lynching.
Villagers from Jurmu said that since the lynching, residents of Jurmu are being threatened by people from Jairagi. On the advice of the local administration, residents of Jurmu stopped supplying mud to a brick kiln being operated by a resident of Jairagi.
In retaliation, the brick kiln owner threatened residents of Jurmu with the comment “khoon ki nadiyan baha denge” (will flow rivers of blood). Moreover, Adivasi children from Jurmu are denied water from a public hand pump at Jairagi chowk.
Social activist Ashok Verma said that on June 17, another person was lynched, this time a Muslim in Saraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand. Like in case of Dumri, this victim was also forced to say “jai shree ram” and “jai hanuman”.

This is the 18th lynching death in Jharkhand in the past three years. These series of lynchings clearly indicate the immunity provided to the perpetrators of violence by the state government.
Jan Sangharsh Samiti’s Saroj Hembram said that she protests against the bovine protection law that is used to kill people on the name of cow slaughter. Kendriya Jansangharsh Samiti strongly condemns these series of lynchings, the subsequent harassment of surviving victims and the administrative inaction against the perpetrators of violence.

Towards the end of the protest meeting, a delegation of protestors submitted a memorandum to the Gumla Deputy Commissioner with the following demands:

Withdrawal of false cases of cow slaughter filed against the Adivasis of Jurmu
Arrest of all the perpetrators involved in the mob violence and file charges against them under The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
Take action against the local police for its long delay in arranging medical treatment for the victims and filing of false case of cow slaughter
Provide interim compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the deceased’s family and Rs. 10 lakhs each to the injured victims
Compliance with the recent Supreme Court judgement on lynching
Action against the continued harassment of Adivasis of Jurmu

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Weaponizing faith? 'I Love Muhammad' and the politics of manufactured riots

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* A disturbing new pattern of communal violence has emerged in several north Indian cities: attacks on Muslims during the “I Love Muhammad” processions held to mark Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This adds to the grim catalogue of Modi-era violence against Muslims, alongside cow vigilantism, so-called “love jihad” campaigns, attacks for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” and assaults during religious festivals.

Counterview

Search This Blog