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Armed men kill BJP leader, family in Jharkhand
Jharkhand BJP Scheduled Tribe wing leader Maagho Mundu was gunned down along with his family allegedly by Maoists in Hethgoa village.
Armed assailants sporting uniforms of a Jharkhand-based Maoist faction allegedly barged into the home of a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Khunti district on Monday night and opened fire, killing him, his wife and a son, police said on Tuesday.
The incident happened in Hethgoa village under Murhu police station, about 40km from the state capital, Ranchi. While Maagho Mundu, 65, his wife, Lukhi Mundu , 60, and son, Liprai Mundu, 28, died on the spot, his second wife, Dharmi Devi, a daughter and a daughter-in-law managed to escape, the police said. Another relative, Labri Devi, was wounded but is recuperating at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi.
Maagho Mundu was a member of the working committee of the Jharkhand BJP’s Scheduled Tribe wing.
“Five to seven people swooped on the house of BJP leader Maagho Mundu on Monday late evening. They opened indiscriminate fire, killing Mundu, his wife and a married son on the spot,” said zonal inspector general (Chhotanagpur), Naveen Singh, who visited the spot on Monday.
The IG said different police squads had been formed to track down the assailants and raids were underway to arrest them. “We have picked up nearly a dozen people for questioning. The role of the banned People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) is suspected behind the triple murder. We are investigating all angles,” he said
Mundu’s neighbours said the armed young men between 18 and 25 years old barged into his house around 8.30 pm on Monday and opened fire. They said Munda’s friend and local BJP leader, Bhaiya Ram Munda, was killed in a similar fashion two years ago. There could be some link between the two killings, they said.
BJP’s Khunti district president, Kashi Nath Mahto, said, “I met Mundu three days ago. He was very happy and told me he was constructing a new house. He and his entire family were very simple. His only son was an ordinary farmer. One of his two unmarried daughters, Radha Mundu, is a mukhiya of Kuddu panchayat.”
Mahto said it was difficult to immediately say who the assailants or what their motives were. “As per my knowledge, Mundu never received any life threats,” he said.
