Jharkhand CM offers soil from martyr’s grave to family, they reject it

The campaign itself had been a whirlwind, beginning with Hindi newspaper Prabhat Khabar running an interview with Balamdina (86) wherein she expressed the desire to see her husband’s remains returned. Lance Naik Ekka had been martyred at a spot that is now in Bangladesh, and his grave is near Agartala.

The story prompted an ex-servicemen’s organisation to take action. Sergeant Anirudh Singh of the Bhootpurv Sainik Kalyan Samiti said they contacted Lt. Gen. Manvender Singh, who retired from Ekka’s 14 Guards. “He put us in touch with a DIG of the BSF, who arranged for a constable to travel to Kolkata and then to Ranchi with what we requested,” said Singh.

It is not clear exactly where the soil was taken from. “There are 12 jawans…buried at the grave site. They definitely did not open it to take the soil; they must have taken some from around the structure,” said Singh.

That did not stop speculation, and later, anger about the way the soil was treated. “How could they carry it in a plastic bag? They sent it by courier to Kolkata,” said Ratan Tirkey, a member of the Tribal Advisory Council. He had taken the meaning of courier to mean the service when, in fact, a constable had been asked by his superiors to take the package to Ranchi .

At Ranchi, the government was apprised of the success. The CM declared that he would take the package to the village, but the administration did not take Ekka’s family into confidence.

When Das interacted with the family, Vincent told him that he did not wish to receive the package. The CM then handed it to the district’s Deputy Commissioner for safekeeping.