Skip to main content

Suspicious death of Adivasi hockey girls: Hundreds protest cop ‘inaction’ in Jharkhand

By Our Representative
Hundreds of people gathered at Simdega, Jharkhand, to protest against alleged lapses in police investigation into the death of two young Adivasi girls, who were hockey players. The protest on October 19 was organised by the National Federation of Indian Women in association with several other civil rights organisations.
These included the Adivasi Women’s Network, Bagaicha, the National Human Rights Organization (NHRO), the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Watch, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the United Milli Forum, and several organizations associated Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha.
On August 11, two young girls, Shradhha Shalini Soreng (14 years) and Sunandini Bage (23 years), were found dead, hanging from a tree in Arani village of Simdega district. The girls were promising hockey players. The girls stayed with a person Mary Purty in Rourkela who had promised coaching help to them.
Shradha’s father Rajesh Soreng, addressing the gathering, said that from the beginning itself, before starting the investigation, the police claimed that it was a suicide. The police kept telling the family that they met the coach and had found that Shradha was not a ‘nice’ girl.
Cops claimed, they had come to know that both the girls were in a homosexual relationship. And hence they were convinced that it was a suicide. They verbally abused the family members several times regarding Sharadha’s “bad” behaviour. They kept saying, “Aapki beti gande-gande kaam karti thi”.
Sunandini’s mother said, the parents were not aware of any homosexual relationship between them, adding, they were convinced that it was not a suicide but a murder, and the coach was involved in their deaths.
A neighbour of Shradha, who had seen her grow up from her childhood, said that she was a dedicated sportswoman. Three days before the incident, Shradha and her daughter had met, the neighbour continued. Shradha was cheerful. She went to Rourkela to inquire into the case and found that neighbours of the coach thought she was involved in sexual exploitation of the girls at her place.
President of the gram sabha, where the girls were found hanging, said that the police did not wait for any witness before taking the bodies down from the tree. He added, the cops did not conduct field investigation after the death. They did not even talk to people of that village. Several other people of Shradha’s and Sunandini’s village said that the police was threatening the victims’ family members and trying to falsely build a case of suicide.
NFIW’s Taramani Sahu, who was part of a civil society fact-finding team that inquired into the incident, addressing the dharna, said that the local police had threatened the family members not to talk to civil society inquiry teams.
There were several loose ends in the investigation by the police. Just based on the testimony of one girl Pushpa Lohar (14-years old, also stayed at the coach’s residence), the police developed a story of suicide driven by a homosexual relationship.
Sahu said, eye witnesses near the site of the incident had seen that the girls were followed by a bike and a car. Regina Xalxo, one of members of the inquiry team, added, the coach initially refused to talk to them when they went to her place.
The coach was not able to tell the team about details about her coaching engagements. James Herenj of the NREGA Watch, said that Simdega police was trying to create a false story of suicide because if they declare it to be a murder, then questions will be raised on their own functioning.
At the end of the dharna, the protesters submitted a memorandum addressed to the governor to the local administration demanding
  • Form a Special Investigation Team to conduct fresh and through probe into the death, possibility of murder and inquire the allegations against the coach
  • Stop character assassClick ination of the victims 
  • Take action against the police officials responsible for the lapses in investigation, for building a false case of suicide and for character assassination of the victims
---
Click HERE for fact-finding report

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Modi govt intimidating US citizens critical of abuses in India: NY Christian group to Biden

Counterview Desk  the New York Council of Churches for its release of an open letter calling on the Biden administration to “speak out forcefully” against rising Hindu extremist violence targeting Christians and other minorities in India. In the letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other major elected officials, the NY Council of Churches expressed "grave concern regarding escalating anti-Christian violence" throughout India, particularly in Manipur, where predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribals have faced hundreds of violent attacks on their villages, churches, and homes at the hands of predominantly Hindu Meitei mobs.

Link India's 'deteriorating' religious conditions with trade relations: US policymakers told

By Our Representative  Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

MS Swaminathan Counterview Desk In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers. Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’. Pointing ou

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.