Jamshedpur police arrest main accused of Pathalgadi and Kochang gangrape case

Jamshedpur, July 22 : In a major breakthrough, two main accused of Pathalgadi and Kochang gangrape case in Khunti, John Junas Tiddu and Balram Samad respectively were arrested by the police during the past 24 hours.

Tiddu (25) who is a resident of Arki block area in Khunti district was arrested by Jamshedpur police from Hata under Potka police station area in East Singhbhum district in the wee hours of Sunday, Samad (28) who is also a resident of Arki was arrested somewhere from Khunti district on Saturday.

Deputy inspector general, Kolhan, Kuldeep Dwivedi confirmed about the arrest of the two persons who were accused of creating violent situation in the name of Pathalgadi in Khunti district and also conspiring the gangrape of five women who were NGO workers by half-a-dozen men at Kochang in Khunti on June 21.

Dwivedi also said that both Tiddu and Samad were accused of abducting four armed guard of Khunti MP, Karia Munda from his residence also in Khunti on June 26.
DIG said that it is a major achievement for the police forces. The inspector general, Ranchi Zone, Naveen Kumar Singh had set up several teams for detecting those elements involved in these illegal activities.

“After getting intelligence inputs on those leading Pathalgadi movement and those involved in the gangrape as well as the abduction of policemen that we have been able to nab the two main accused,” said the DIG.

He said 12 cases and eight cases related to Pathalgadi are pending against Tiddu and Samad respectively with the Khunti police.

The DIG said that during the interrogation, Samad has confessed that he had convinced the PLFI rebels to commit gangrape of the five women who were active in making the people aware against the Pathalgarhi.

“As per our investigation Samad was the mastermind behind the gangrape. He has divulged that he had motivated the PLFI’s Baji Samad and Juna Munda to commit the gangrape of the five women so that no one else would be interested to work for creating awareness among the people and they themselves will be able to evade arrest,” said the senior police officer.

They had carried series of unconstitutional Pathalgadi programmes in Khunti district and also in Seraikela-Kharsawan district.