Chhattisgarh: 'Accidental Death' of Tribals Turns into 'Murder', Leads to Political Row

Three members of Baiga tribal community were found charred to death but later it was revealed that it was a murder. Police have accused a local Congress leader of asking the eye witness not to inform police. After which, BJP criticised Congress for doing politics on such an issue while the latter blamed the saffron party for not protecting the community.

Kawardha (Chhattisgarh):The murder of three members of a tribal family in Chhattisgarh's Kawardha district that was initially considered to be a case of accidental fire has now turned into a political controversy with the police accusing a Congress leader of misleading them and BJP condemning the act.

The Congress on the other hand, has accused the BJP of failing to protect the tribal community. Fourteen suspects have been arrested in this connection till now.

On January 15, three members of Baiga tribal community, Budharam, Himarati and Janhu Ram (12) were found charred to death in Nagadhara in Kawardha. After investigation, police termed the incident as murder. It was revealed that Budharam had a land dispute with one Rajo Bai. At night, the two women and the minor were murdered and their hut was set on fire. Rajo, among the 14 arrested in this case, has confessed to her crime.

The situation took a different turn after Kawardha superintendent of police, Abhishek Pallav held a press conference. Pallav said that on the second day of the incident, Congress candidate from Pandariya Assembly Neelkanth Chandravanshi had learnt about the murder. "The eyewitness had told him but, he prevented the eyewitness from telling anything to the police. He did this because he had to do politics over the incident," he told newspersons.

Refuting the allegations, Congress leader Neelkanth Chandravanshi termed the SP's accusations as "baseless". He said the case was already being termed as an accident and claimed that the police swung into action only after Congress launched protests. "How can the SP accuse me of concealing facts and misleading the police?" he asked.

BJP MLA of Pandaria, Bhavana Bohra slammed the Congress of doing politics by misleading the police. The MLA said, "The death of the tribal family is very sad and doing politics over it is unfortunate. No party should practice such politics."

The Congress on the other hand has accused the BJP of failing to protect the Baiga community people. The Congress MLAs created a ruckus in the Assembly and demanded resignation of the deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma.

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