Tribal Christians tonsured in Jharkhand village

Simdega: Seven tribal Christians were allegedly beaten, partially tonsured and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram) in a Jharkhand village for allegedly slaughtering a cow.

The September 16 incident, reported to the police the next day, came to public only on September 25 when former zilla parishad (district council) member and social activist Neel Justin Beck told a local news portal about it.

Police have confirmed the incident. Shams Tabrez, the superintendent of police in Simdega district where the attack took place, said four of the nine named as accused in the First Information Report have been arrested and the rest would be picked up soon. The FIR also mentions 10 unnamed accused.

Jharkhand had witnessed the lynching of several tribal people and Muslims on unsubstantiated charges of cow slaughter or beef possession during the tenure of its previous BJP-led government (2014-2019). This is the first reported communal attack since an alliance of various secular parties came to power last December.

Deepak Kullu, 26, a tribal Christian from Bherikudar in Simdega, about 145 km southwest of Ranchi, said a group of more than 25 stick and rod-wielding people entered the village early September 16. The men were apparently residents of nearby villages.

“I saw them beating a villager, Raj Singh Kullu, and hurling caste-based expletives at his wife Jacqueline Kullu. When I sought an explanation, they started mouthing caste-based expletives at me too and accused us of slaughtering cows,” Deeapak said.

“Raj continued to plead that no one had killed any cows. But the mob showed us what seemed a fake video of an elderly man from a neighboring village saying he had seen cows being slaughtered in our village.”

Deepak alleged the mob dragged him and six other Christian tribal men from the village to neighboring Mahato Tola, about half a kilometre away, all the while slapping and beating them with sticks and forcing them to chant “Jai Shri Ram.”

At Mahato Tola, they were made to squat under a tree and had portions of their heads shaved by the mob.

Cow slaughter was banned in Jharkhand by a 2005 law, which the state’s erstwhile BJP-led government began strictly enforcing since 2017.

“The attackers called the local Simdega police station, accusing us of cow slaughter. The police arrived in a few minutes and took us to the police station,” Deepak said.

“The police searched our homes but could not find any trace of cow slaughter and released all of us later in the day. The next day, Jacqueline lodged complaints with Simdega police station and the district SC/ST police station.”

Police officer Tabrez said: “A case has been registered under the SC/ST Act and several Indian Penal Code sections. A special investigation team led by the sub-divisional police officer is conducting raids to arrest the remaining accused.”

Beck, the activist, identified the seven victims as Raj, Deepak, Emmanuel Tete, Sugad Dang, Sulin Barla, Soshan Dang and Sem Kido.

Rabindra Prasad Singh, officer in charge of Simdega police station, said the nine named accused were Nayan Keshri, Sonu Singh, Sonu Nayak, Tulsi Sahu, Shrikant Prasad, Deepak Prasad, Aman Keshri, Rajendra Prasad and Nakul Patar.

]“We have arrested Sonu Singh, Sonu Nayak, Nayan and Rajendra so far,” he said. “We searched every house whose occupants were accused of cow slaughter but found nothing conclusive.”

Rabindra said the victims did not suffer serious injuries in the beating, and none of them needed medical attention.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/jharkhand/tribal-christians-tonsured-and-forced-to-chant-jai-shri-ram-in-jharkhand-village/cid/1793096