Maoists kidnap two guards of a private firm, hack them to death in Bihar’s Jamui district

Police said the construction firm, engaged by the water resources department for its irrigation project, could have been targeted for not paying the ‘levy’ demanded by Maoists

Suspected Maoists abducted and hacked to death two security guards of a private construction company in southeast Bihar’s Jamui district late on Monday night.

Maoists have stepped up their activities in Jamui district of Bihar in the last few years. (File photo)

Police said the bodies of the two guards, with their throats slit, were recovered from Dudhania village of Jamui district, 166km southeast of Patna, on Tuesday morning.

Eyewitnesses told police that more than two dozen Maoists surrounded the construction company site at Jainsthan Kundghat of Sikandra village in the district and abducted the two guards at gunpoint.

Even after the Maoists left, scared employees of the construction firm did not raise an alarm. “We remained indoors for the Maoists had threatened us with dire consequences if we reported the matter to police before sunrise,” an employee said.

Police sources said the construction firm, engaged by the water resources department for its Rs 5586.52-lakh irrigation project, could have been targeted for not paying the ‘levy’ demanded by Maoists.

The victims had been identified as Siddhram Koda and Ganguli Koda, both residents of Dhawatand in Mathurapur panchayat of the district, Jamui superintendent of police (SP) Jayant Kant said. They were deputed as security guards at the site of the firm engaged in the construction of a dam over river Bahuar under Kundghat reservoir scheme , the SP added.

In the last few years, the Maoists have stepped up their activities in Jamui district.

On July 12, 2017, three members of a family, Bajrangi Koda, Shiv Koda and Mina Devi, were killed by Maoists on suspicion of being police informers in Jamui..

In November, 2011, 15 employees of a private company engaged in construction of a bridge over Bharnar river were kidnapped at gunpoint by Maoists and later freed in the forest near Charaiya area of Jamui. The refusal of the management of the construction firm to meet the extortion demands was reason behind the abduction.