BOKARO: Four motorbike-borne miscreants shot dead Amit Manjhi, district president of the Jharkhand Chatra Yuva Morcha (JCYM), students wing of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), while he was on his way to residence at Adarsh Cooperative under Sector-XII police station here on Saturday night. Land dispute with local builders is said to be the reason behind his murder.
Police have arrested three accused whom the kin of the deceased have named in the FIR soon after his murder. The incident has sparked off protest among JMM workers, who assembled at the Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) in large numbers and raised anti-slogans against district police demanding arrest of the murderers soon.
JMM leaders, including Basant Soren, youngest son of party chief Shibu Soren, and the state president of JCYM, Dumri MLA Jagarnath Mahto have given a 24-hour ultimatum to the district police officials to solve the case and arrest criminals or else the party workers will launch an agitation.
Based on the complaint lodged by elder brother of the deceased, Karamchand Manjhi, police have arrested Manoj Pandey, Virender Yadav and Pinto Singh alias Druv Kumar Singh from their homes. Pinto is a resident of Sector-VI, Yadav resides in Chas and Pandey is from Sector-XII. “We are interrogating the trio – all involbed in land business – to bring the truth. A few days ago, they have entered in an altercation with Manjhi because he was opposing them from leveling lands at Satanpur,” he said.
According to sources, the incident occurred on Saturday night when Manjhi was riding his motorbike on his way back home. The miscreants opened fire on his running motorbike following which he fell down. Manjhi struggled to escape but criminals again shot him dead. The local police reached the spot after residents informed them about the gun firing and recovered Manjhi’s body lying in a pool of blood around 300 meters from his motorbike near Adarsh Cooperative.
Police also found two country-made pistols along with two used cartridges from the spot. Criminals have shot four bullets on his head, hand and back side. Manjhi, son of a retired Bokaro Steel Ltd employee, was a resident of Bharat Ekta Cooperative. Before the incident, he had food at a makeshift shop with his father Jaleshwar Manjhi and mother in Sector XII/C Shopping Center. Later, he went alone saying that he will reach home soon.
Karamchand said two days ago, Pinto had called him on his phone and told him to stop Manjhi from interfering their business or it will be bad for him. However, a month ago Virender and Manjhi also had a fight over a land issue of which FIR has been lodged with the police station. “These builders were leveling a land which is worship place of tribal and Manjhi has stopped them doing so. This has developed enmity against Manjhi for them,” said Karmchand.
Basant Soren said, “The incident is very unfortunate. Manjhi was a good student leader and helped poors and so he has been targeted by land mafias. “The JMM has taken the incident very seriously and we will not remain quiet until each of the criminals will be sent behind bars,” he said. Bokaro SP Kuldeep Dwivedi said it was a planned murder following a land dispute. Police have arrested three accused and raids are on to nab other absconding person.