Four murders and a power plant

Land purchase deals amid gunshots in Jharkhand village

investigations into the murder of four security guards at a proposed power plant in Jharkhand are revealing uncomfortable truths about industrialization in the state. The company that wants to buy land in Chakla village of Latehar district called the guards martyrs and held Maoist rebels responsible for the murders.

Sources in the police intelligence said the reason for the killings could be entirely different the company may have been using a renegade Maoist faction to coerce the villagers to sell their land. The police suspect the renegades turned on the company after being left out of the gravy train.

After midnight of April 5, unidentified gunmen came to the site where the Abhijeet Group aims to build a power plant and killed the four guards. Faisal Ahmed, one of the first in the village to reach the spot, said the bodies were ridden with bullets.The victims' hands were tied behind them with their belts. The killers left pamphlets claiming they were from Sanyukt Krantikari Committee, a Maoist outfit.

The Abhijeet Group, which owns the company building the plant, was quoted in the media as saying the violence resulted from its refusal to meet the Maoists' extortion demand of Rs 20 lakh. The company was to later deny having said this.

The incident had the company scurrying to the governor's office for help. An emergency meeting was called at the Raj Bhawan where the governor's advisor T P Sinha asked the director general of police to speed up investigations and identify and arrest the killers. Officials present at the meeting expressed concern that such incidents may drive investors away from the state.

Not Maoists
Investigations indicated land purchase deals for the 1,200 MW thermal plant led to the killings. A breakaway faction of a Maoist group, the Nageshwar gang, killed the guards, intelligence sources said. The police have arrested a member of the gang, Sanoj Lohra.

Lohra's interrogation and the statements given by the villagers have given the police vital leads. "We are probing this case from the angle of a land deal gone sour," said Shamim Ahmed Khan, the officer investigating the case.

Police intelligence sources revealed the guards were brokering land deals. In the initial days, the company apparently used the Nageshwar gang to strike land deals but later started using the guards they hired from among the villagers, to approach landowners. The Nageshwar gang members may have been angered at being sidelined and killed the guards, the sources said. The company's project manager Rajeev Goyal denied having links with Maoists or any gang.