Author: Saugar Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 2, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/280378/A-blood-Red-tale-of-brutality-and-shame.html
Maoists gangrape, bury alive woman for defying
diktat
In a shocking incident of Maoist brutality,
a band of Red ultras waylaid an Anganwadi woman, subjected her to gangrape
and buried her alive in order to send across a bloodcurdling message to their
nonconformist political opponents.
The ferocity of the medieval-type 'punishment'
was such and its impact so complete that the few villagers who saw this cruel
incident take place chose not to come to the police after the incident, police
officials of West Midnapore district said.
The police said the incident took place between
August 2 and August 4 when a band of 21 Maoists led by the Pintu Mahato squad
stormed the Bhangabandh house of Chabi Mahato and dragged her away. Bhangabandh
is a tiny tribal hamlet flanked by a forest and a canal in Salboni area of
East Midnapore.
Incidentally, Salboni is the same place where
the Maoists had triggered a landmine explosion targeting Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee's cavalcade in November 2008 while the CM was returning after
inaugurating a Jindal Group project.
Chabi Mahato, an anganwadi worker and a CPI(M)
member attached to the Pirakata local committee, was dragged away at gunpoint
by the members of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) and
Maoists as she had refused to join a PCPA procession in support of a rally
to be organised later at Lalgarh, senior officials said.
The 40-year-old victim, who is survived by
two daughters and a son, lost her husband a year ago to a Maoist attack. He
was abducted and shot by the Red guerillas following a kangaroo court decision.
"They (PCPA-Maoists) had threatened my
mother with dire consequences if she did not walk in their procession. But
my mother was a brave woman and she refused to comply with their order,"
said Debashis Mahato, the victim's son.
Though senior officials would not divulge
the exact contents of the post-mortem report, they confirmed she was gangraped
between the canal and the forest. "There were 21 of them. Some villagers,
who saw the crime but were afraid to report it, said she was screaming,"
Midnapore police said, adding that the rebels buried her alive when she fell
silent.
An FIR had already been filed against 15 persons.
Sibram Mahato, a PCPA activist from Salboni, charged the ruling Marxists with
the crime. "It is the CPI(M) game plan to malign the PCPA," said
Mahato.
"The post-mortem report points at gangrape
but more tests will be carried out as the body had rotted," said a senior
official, quoting the doctors. It would take more than a week for the report
to be submitted.
On what led the doctors to surmise the reason
for death, officials said the body did not bear such marks so as to suggest
fatal blows. Besides, there was earth in the lung which also would suggest
that she was breathing while being buried.
An abnormal bloat in the ground near Bhangabandh
canal raised suspicion among the villagers who then called the police on Monday.
The police were also looking for another Anganwadi
worker, Anima Besra, who went missing on August 23 from Kumra village of Maoist-hit
Bandwan in Purulia district.
On why the villagers were coming forward with
the story of what happened to Chabi Mahato on August 2, officers said, "They
were scared." The villagers from all the parts of West Midnapore had
started to speak up and raise protest movements against the Maoists after
the recent successes the security forces got in the Jangalamahal, police maintained,
adding, more and more Maoists were contacting them to surrender arms.
