‘TPC shot surrendered Maoists,showed CRPF bodies’

Police had claimed on Thursday that the fighting,which had started at 4.30 pm on Wednesday,ended at 3.30 am on Thursday after a team of the CRPF and district armed police reached the spot.

The TPC is a faction that broke away from the main Maoist movement in 2002,allegedly in protest against Yadav domination. They have since clashed repeatedly with the CPI (Maoist) and are widely believed to have the backing of the state security apparatus.

On Friday,Jharkhand DGP Rajiv Kumar denied suggestions of an understanding between the police and TPC. “I am not aware… We are taking action against all Naxal groups,including the TPC. We have nothing to do with them,” Kumar said.

Several villagers who witnessed Wednesday night’s gunbattle said that by 3 am on Thursday,all of the original 35-45 Maoists who were still standing had surrendered.

“The Maoists had begun to request a surrender from at least 1 am. The TPC accepted this by 3 am. There were discussions,and we heard the TPC say that the younger men would be taken away,” said a villager who lives close to the bloody harvested field where most of the fighting took place.

“The TPC cadres then came to us,asking for water. My wife gave it to them in an aluminium pot. We saw 6-7 men sitting on the ground about 25 metres away,their hands tied behind their backs,” the villager,who belongs to the Dalit Ganjhu caste,said.

“We heard the TPC men talking for some time. They were not agitated,they were just discussing. Then we heard the shots. Phut,phut,phut,phut.”

Various other witness accounts confirmed that the gunbattle was over by 3 am. Villagers said that personnel from the CRPF’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) reached the spot around 5 am. The TPC men,who had left,came back around an hour after that.

“Seeing the government forces,all except three of them retreated. The three who stayed back met the CRPF officers on the spot. It is not difficult to identify them,the TPC’s uniforms resemble that of the CRPF in every way except for the markings. The TPC men took the officers around,pointing out the bodies,” said a villager,who said 15 Maoists had stopped at his home before the encounter began.

Lakramanda is a hamlet of 40-odd homes,one of the last settlements in Chatra before its border with Palamu. The Kunda block office is only 16 km away,but the terrain is punishing and roads non-existent. The CRPF uses bikes to get around. On Friday,Superintendent of Police Anup Birthare walked almost 7 km to get to the village.

Lakramanda has lived with Maoism for long. Parasji,a Maoist zonal commander and one of the few Ganjhu leaders in the CPI (Maoist),hailed from the hamlet. Parasji was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 21,2012. Ganjhu-dominated Lakramanda has openly allied itself with the TPC since then.

The village serves as a pit-stop for Bihar Maoists on their way to Saranda. “Laleshji (Lalesh Yadav,secretary of the Madhya zone of the Bihar-Jharkhand-North Chhattisgarh Special Area Committee,who was killed on Wednesday night) was here with almost 400 people less than six months ago. His boss was with him. They called him Nishantji,” said a villager who said he hosted the slain Lalesh,Biru,Jaikumar and Praful Yadav.

Nishant is one of the aliases used by Maoist Central Committee member Arvind Singh or Arvindji,who is thought to be in the area,and who allegedly ordered the placing of an IED in the abdomen of a dead security forces man following the Latehar encounter earlier this year.

According to villagers,the Maoists arrived at 7 am on Holi (Wednesday) morning,and gave them money to buy rice and potatoes,which they ate before splitting up to sleep at three different homes in the village.

Shortly after 1 am,the TPC crept into the hamlet. “They snatched mobile phones,locked people in their houses,and encircled the three houses where the Maoists were,” said a villager. Soon afterward,the firing started.