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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Hint of motive on funeral day by Alamgir Hossain & Suman K Shrivastava

Hint of motive on funeral day by Alamgir Hossain & Suman K Shrivastava

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published Published on Nov 17, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 17, 2011

Sister Valsa John may have incurred the wrath of a group of local criminals for seeking justice for a raped tribal girl and that may have been the immediate provocation for her brutal murder on Tuesday.

According to a senior Pakur district official, Valsa had sought an appointment with Pakur deputy commissioner after the Amrapara police refused to lodge an FIR against the alleged rapists a couple of days back.

Deputy commissioner S.K. Singh did not deny that an appointment had been sought. “She may have contacted my office for an appointment,” he told The Telegraph.

Amrapara police maintained no FIR about a rape had been lodged at the police station, although they detained two persons for questioning today in connection with the murder.

There is a deathly silence in Pachuara, the village where Valsa was butchered on Tuesday night. No one is talking. Yet, it is clear that a section of its people had turned against the nun from Kerala who had come to Jharkhand in 2001 and got involved in their lives with the idea of doing good.

May be she realised this when she returned to Pachuara after a year on November 7. For, two days later, villagers blocked the road to Amrapara to prevent Panem, the mining company set up over 1,704 acre on nine nearby villages, from transporting the 1,000 tonne of coal it does everyday.

The villagers’ demand: Sister Valsa should leave.

Panem PRO Sanjay Das admitted that such a demand was voiced when company officials went to talk to the villagers to try and convince them to lift the blockade.

“We never imagined that such a thing could happen,” he said, referring to her murder 36 hours ago.

The killers, around 20-25 and carrying work tools like spades, scythes, axes, as well as weapons like choppers, came around 10.45pm on Tuesday. They searched for Valsa in all the nearby houses. Six in all.

When they got to her rented home and confronted landlord Sonaram Hembrom, he denied she was inside. “They did not believe me,” said the terrified family man who had let out one of two rooms to the nun. “They barged in”.

Valsa was attacked in her sleep. Police sources claimed she was found lying dead on the ground beside a charpoy with deep gashes near her ears and neck. Her head was partially severed.

“It was as if the killers wanted to make sure she was de-ad,” said a local policeman, who did not wish to be identified.

Valsa, a resident of Edapally in Kochi (Kerala), came to Jharkhand in 2001. Within two years, she set up a school, Hormadesh Manji. Today, 100 students study there. Each pay Rs 200 as annual fees. There are three teachers, whom she paid Rs 4,000 each, at least Rs 12,000 less than what a teacher in a government school earns.

By 2004, she got involved in the villagers’ protest against Panem, a joint venture between Punjab State Electricity Board and a private firm, Eastern Mineral Trading Agency.

They blocked the lifeline of the area, the Pachuara-Amrapara Road, preventing the firm from transporting coal. The agitation went on for more than a year after which an agreement was signed between her organisation, Rajmahal Pahar Bachao Andolan, and the coal mining company.

Things changed within the next three years. Panem was allowed to begin operations after they committed to creating schools, health infrastructure, apart from paying compensation to land losers at market rates.

And Valsa continued to mediate with the company to ensure the agreement was honoured in letter and spirit.

Today, PRO Das said, Panem ran five primary schools and three health centres to cater to the nine villages of Pachuara, Singdeheri, Besulpur, Anghari, Kathaldi, Chilgo, Dangapara, Taljhari and Aluberia.

“We have paid 100 per cent compensation to all displaced,” said Gautam Kumar Samanto, Panem’s survey officer and head of administration. “Also, we have provided jobs to around 700 villagers,” he added, denying suggestions that the company was at the centre of a simmering discontent brewing among villagers.

By 2008, that feeling seems to have transformed into anger, although there are still no clear indications of the factors behind this turnaround.

That year, when the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Pakur granted her bail after she was arrested in connection with another round of roadblocks, she left the village.

She came back in 2010, but was forced to leave again, sometime in November, after her then landlord bowed to villagers’ demands and refused to let her stay on.

She was away for about year and came back again this November.

MLA Simon Marandi believes Valsa over-stepped. “She was leading a separate administration in the area,” he said, referring to June 2005 when tribals, armed with bows and arrows, had prevented JMM leaders, including Shibu Soren, from entering the area.

Former chief minister Stephen Marandi disagreed. “She lived in a single room and had a spartan lifestyle. She was committed to her work. It will be wrong to say she sold out to the company.”

The police have detained two villagers for questioning. “We have an idea which we are working on… Investigations will reveal the truth,” said SP Amarnath Khanna.

The Telegraph, 18 November, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111118/jsp/frontpage/story_14766854.jsp


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