Two weeks after a tribal woman was allegedly molested by a CRPF personnel in West Singhbhum’s Bandhgaon block, local Adivasi leaders were able to pressure police into initiating the process of lodging an FIR. At a meeting organised under a peepul tree in Bandhgaon market, members of Manki-Munda Sangh, comprising 216 Mundas and nine Mankis, asked K K Jha, officer-in-charge of the local police station, and Block Development Officer Mohd. Shahzad Pervez to launch a probe into the alleged molestation. Notably, elected representatives, including panchayat members, were kept out of the loop as villagers communicated their grievances directly to the police officer and the BDO. The incident in question took place on the afternoon of September 8 in Kudmud village of Jalasar panchayat. The 25-year-old victim, who was present at the meeting, said her husband was away when a CRPF personnel entered her house, asking for water. “I could see his two colleagues standing outside. He handed me two bottles to fill water. When I asked for the bottle caps, he began stripping himself and caught hold of me,” she added. The woman said when she screamed, the three personnel escaped into the jungle. Villagers took the woman to the police station on September 9, but officers there refused to file an FIR. After hearing out the woman, the officer-in-charge said,” My job is not to trouble you. I will ensure that the perpetrators will be brought to justice”. Mikhail Lomga, the Munda of Kudmud, said it was the first time security personnel had misbehaved in the village. “The operation had been going on for about a week before the incident. Forces were stationed at schools in two villages —Kahdiri and Podongir. They came to our village, demanding to know about the Jharkhand Liberation Tigers,” he said. This is the second time in about 15 days that an adivasi woman of Bandhgaon has alleged molestation by a security personnel. A resident of Tebo village, pregnant at the time, alleged in the first week of September that a personnel of the Jharkhand Armed Police molested her. At the meeting in the Bandhgaon market, many villagers were worried that the police would file false cases against them. “If we gherao the thana, the police will claim we were sent by the MCC (Maoists),” scoffed Mani Munda of Karida.
