News Analysis India

Tag: Jharkhand

  • Jharkhand: Cops recover skull of beheaded body found over a week ago

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Finally, Jharkhand Police has recovered the skull of the beheaded body, which was recovered from Ormanjhi in Ranchi on January 3, from a paddy filed in Chadaway, a few kilometers away from the where the body was found. 

    The skull was recovered on the basis of the response of the wife and son of prime accused Shiekh Bilal during their interrogation. Bilal is still at large.

    “A skull has been recovered from the paddy field which is said to be of the headless body found in Ormanjhi. The case is being investigated further and the hunt is on for other accused in the case,” said SSP Ranchi SK Jha. The police, acting on a lead provided by the family members of the prime accused SheikhBilal recovered the skull which will be verified whether it belongs to the same body which was found in Ormajhi,” he added.

    Ranchi Police had released photographs of prime accused Sheikh Bilal, a resident of Chandwe Basti under Pithoria police station, on Monday and launched a massive hunt to arrest him. Initially, a reward of Rs 25,000 was announced for furnishing any lead or information on the case. Later, it was increased to Rs 50,000. The police have now increased the bounty to Rs 5 lakh.

    A day after the headless body of the woman was spotted, people took to the streets in protest and attacked the convoy of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. BJP leaders have termed the case more brutal than the Nirbhaya case.

  • Stuck for hours in wild boar trap, leopard dies in Jharkhand’s Bhimtari jungles

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: A leopard that got stuck in a trap meant to capture wild boars in Bhimtari jungles of Giridih died of hunger and thirst as no serious efforts were made to rescue it. Locals have claimed that the forest officials reached the trap only after being informed by them. 

    The forest department, however, has claimed that every possible effort was made to rescue the spotted animal. 

    “It appears that someone had put a trap for wild boars in which the leopard got stuck. As it was trying to free itself, the trap got tightened further. Efforts are on to trace the person who had put the trap,” said Ranger Anil Kumar.

    All efforts were made to protect the leopard and a cage had also been arranged from Hazaribagh to shift it to a safer place but unfortunately, it died before that, he added.

    According to the locals, those who had put the trap ran away after watching the leopard entering it. When they noticed the leopard groaning in agony, they informed the forest officials, but even they could not save it.

    The forest official said that further details could be obtained only after getting the postmortem reports.

    “Even after being informed, the forest officials did not turn up for several hours. They did not make any serious attempt to rescue it from the trap hence it died tormenting for several hours,” said a resident, requesting anonymity. 

    They kept on looking at the animal helplessly from a distance, he added.

    Bhimtari jungles that fall under the Gawaan Forest Range of Giridih are very dense and have a sizeable number of wild animals in them. Generally, locals put traps to catch wild boars for their own consumption.

  • Jharkhand: Three men rape 55-year-old, insert steel glass in her private parts

    Express News Service
    RANCHI:  In yet another brutal incident of gang-rape in Jharkhand, a 55-year-old widow was gang-raped by three people of her village at Kobna under Hunterganj police Station in Chatra following a dispute over an accident killing her goat about a month ago. 

    According to the FIR lodged by the woman, she was gang-raped as she was demanding compensation for the goat after it met with an accident with the bike of one of the accused.

    The incident came to light only after an FIR was lodged at Hunterganj Police Station on Friday. 

    “As per the statement recorded by the woman, three people gang-raped her when she was out for defecation late in the evening on Thursday. The incident, according to her, took place following a dispute over an accident killing her goat. Her demand for compensation took an ugly turn resulting in heated arguments between them several times in the past,” said Chatra SP Rishav Kumar Jha. When the woman was out for defection on Thursday evening, all the four raped her, he added.

    “Two of the named accused have been arrested, while efforts are being made to arrest the third accused person,” said the SP. The arrested accused have admitted their crime, he added.

    Meanwhile, the victim has been admitted to the local community health centre and said to be stable.

    Local police revealed that the accused, after raping her one after another, also put a steel glass in her private parts. “Apparently, the crime was committed with an intention to teach the woman a lesson for demanding compensation. They even inserted a steel glass in her private parts,” said officer-in-charge of Hunterganj police station Sachin Kumar Das.

    As per the data provided by former CM Babulal Marandi, a total of 1765 incidents of rape took place in the last one year since the JMM-led alliance came into power in the state in December 2019.

  • Tana Bhagats intensify agitation in Jharkhand, block roads demanding fulfilment of promises

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Hundreds of Tana Bhagats, a sect that follows Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology of non-violence and is known for peaceful protests, blocked roads in Ranchi demanding facilities promised to them by the government. They sat on roads near Raj Bhavan after being stopped by the administration while they were marching towards the CM’s house to ‘gherao’ it.

    According to the Tana Bhagats, even after so many years of independence, they have not been given their due. The government is not taking them seriously, they claimed.

    “We are not going to move out of here until we are allowed to meet the Chief Minister,” said an agitating Tana Bhagat. Several governments came and went, but their demands have not been fulfilled, he added.

    They have been demanding land leases and pensions for the role played by the sect in the freedom struggle against the British, besides waiving rent, strict enforcement of CNT Act and government employment to children of the community.

    In order to press their demands, over 250 Tana Bhagats, both male and female, had also demonstrated at Tori Junction in September performing puja, singing bhajans and cooking food on the railway tracks, affecting movement of several goods trains as well as the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express which remained stranded at Daltonganj railway station for several hours.

  • Jharkhand breaks agreement with Centre, RBI on power dues

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: In a major decision taken by the State Cabinet on Wednesday, the Jharkhand Government made an exit from the ‘Tripartite Agreement’ among the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central government (through Union power ministry) and State Governments/UTs.

    As per the Tripartite Agreements to which these three bodies are signatories, the Central Bank (RBI) has the power to deduct amounts equal to discoms’ over dues to the NTPC from the accounts of the State Government/UT and pay it directly to the power producer.

    Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that the decision to withdraw from Tripartite Agreements’ was taken as the agreement was one sided.

    “The fund which was meant for development and uplift of tribals and marginalized section of societies was deducted from Centre,” said Soren.

    Energy Department principal secretary Avinash Kumar said that the decision was taken in the larger interest of the State.

    The agreements make it incumbent on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to deduct the default amount from the respective state government’s accounts with the central bank.

    Notably, a sum of Rs 1,417.50 crore was auto debited from Jharkhand’s account with the Reserve Bank of India without consulting the state as an adjusted against dues the state owed to Damodar Valley Corporation.

    The state government had objected the move expressing “deep anguish and disappointment at the blatant and continuous attempt by the Centre to impose fiscal penalties on Jharkhand”.

    Power distribution company, the Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL) owes Rs 5000 crore to DVC (a unit of Centre government), and the DVC on earlier occasion had written letter to JBVNL to clear the dues.

    The DVC from last month (December) had already made power cuts in the seven districts — Dhanbad, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Koderma, Bokaro, Giridih and Chatra — by as much as 30 per cent after JBVNL faulted on payment of monthly power bills.

    The DVC with non-payment of power dues had written a letter to JBVNL to make 50 per cent power cuts if the dues are not cleared. 

  • Man held in Mumbai for threatening to kill former Jharkhand Deputy CM Sudesh Mahto

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: A 27-year-old man was arrested in Mumbai for allegedly threatening to kill former deputy chief minister of Jharkhand over phone in a bid to extort Rs 15 lakh from him nearly five months ago, a police official said on Wednesday.

    The accused, Nilesh Kamlesh Pande, who hails from Pratapgad in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Tuesday from Bainganwadi area in Mumbai’s Shivaji Nagar, the official said.

    “Pande had called former deputy CM of Jharkhand Sudesh Kumar Mahto on August 14 last year and demanded Rs 15 lakh from him. The accused had also threatened to shoot Mahto by entering his house if the money was not paid to him,” the official said.

    Mahto, who represents Silli Assembly constituency in Jharkhand, had approached the police.

    His personal assistant Mahendra Kumar Sharma had filed a complaint against the unidentified caller on his behalf, he said.

    An offence under IPC sections 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) was registered at Gonda Police Station in Ranchi in connection with the case and a probe was launched, he said.

    “During the investigation, it came to light that the suspect stays in Mumbai’s Shivajinagar area, an eastern suburb,” he said.

    A photo of the suspect and a mobile number was passed on to the Mumbai Police from their Ranchi counterparts, the official added.

    “Accordingly, the Unit-6 of the Mumbai crime branch laid a trap in the area for two days and finally apprehended Pande on Tuesday,” he said.

    After the arrest, he was produced before a local court, which sent him to transit remand till January 11, he said.

    According to the official, Pande has been handed over to a team of Jharkhand Police, which came to Mumbai to take him into custody.

  • Chhattisgarh state topped in providing facilities to migrant workers during lockdown

    Chhattisgarh has been the top state in the country in providing facilities to the migrant workers who returned during the lockdown. This conclusion came out in a survey conducted by the Interference Survey Statistics and Research Foundation (ISSRF). It is noteworthy that on the initiative of Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel, rapid steps were taken to provide various kinds of facilities to the migrant workers in the state and many labor-friendly decisions were taken.
        The Interference Survey and Statistics Foundation conducted a survey in six major migrant workers’ returning states of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Which focused on various basic facilities including livelihood, education, health provided to migrant workers during lockdown.
        Quarantine facility was provided to 100 per cent migrant laborers returned to Chhattisgarh, 97.80 per cent migrant laborers were given free and subsidized ration as per eligibility, similarly LPG connections, cash assistance, agriculture and MNREGA employment and agricultural loans to laborer families. Facilities provided like Chhattisgarh ranks first among surveyed states in providing free LPG connections to workers.
        The survey was conducted in 99 gram panchayats of Bilaspur, Dantewada, Jashpur, Mahasamund and Rajnandgaon. Which includes more than five hundred thousand migrant workers. The survey conducted in Chhattisgarh includes 28 in Bilaspur district, 15 in Dantewada, 20 in Jashpur, 19 in Mahasamund and 17 in Gramnandgaon. These gram panchayats were surveyed from 30 June to 28 July.
        According to the survey, workers in Chhattisgarh can be divided into two categories. Workers engaged in non-agricultural work in the first category, who are 52.98 percent skilled and in the second category iron and welding, 40.43 percent skilled in fabrication work. Chhattisgarh accounts for one third of the skilled workforce. 63.94 percent of construction workers from Chhattisgarh are skilled in construction cutting work.