Ranchi: A man was killed while 33 persons including 10 police personnel and an administrative officer were injured in a violent clash between two groups in Chanho police station area of Ranchi on Tuesday.
Sources said the violence erupted over a dispute involving 4.25 acres of land. Out of the entire plot, 25 dismil land was reportedly allotted for madarasa while as much area of land was allotted for road. Rest of the land was reportedly subjected to bandobasti for Idgah, sources said.
Sources said the villagers had opposed the land settlement while alleging that the bandobasti was carried out without getting the approval of the gram sabha. They said the district administration authorities concerned should have first consulted the gram sabha members before going ahead with the decision for bandobasti. They said the rules for land bandobasti had been violated by the administration authorities concerned.
No sooner did members of a particular community gathered at the disputed land in the morning, the villagers opposed this. The situation turned violent with both sides pelting stones on each other. In the violence, a villager identified as Dashrath Oraon died after sustaining critical injury. His family members said he was not involved in the incident. Still, he was killed by a mob when he was sitting outside his house. The deceased is survived by four children.
Local police reached the scene and made futile attempts to disperse the mob. SP rural SK Jha, DSP of Khalari Radha Prem Kishore and the sub divisional officer of Ranchi Sadar Amit Kumar were injured in the mob attack. The victims were admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Science.
Meanwhile, MLA Bandhu Tirkey alleged that the incident was caused by administrative inaction. He said he had tipped off the administration about the possibility of occurrence of such an incident. But the administration did not deploy sufficient forces at the disputed site, he said.
He also blamed few local residents for the violence. He met Chief Minister Hemant Soren after the incident and demanded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and government job to the next of kin of the deceased.
