Fear rules forest hamlets of Purulia after twin hangings

Purulia: Villagers have stopped venturing out after sundown in forest hamlets along the Jharkhand border following the mysterious deaths of two BJP activists within a span of just three days.
Labourers from Surpudih village, who used to go to Dabha for work and return home by evening, are all staying back. The scare is such that even police have advised youths to move in a group of two.
Police are reaching out to the forest hamlets and asking youths to keep an eye on outsiders.Cops are forming night patrol parties with 10 youths each in all the 105 booths in Dabha village to beef up surveillance.
Youths breaking political barriers have started night patrols in villages with bows and arrows, sickles, lathi and torches; women are sitting in groups on the village roads in the evening. The villages of Surpudih and Dabha have turned disturbed areas overnight. Police are checking vehicles on NH32 because Jharkhand is only three kilometres from Dabha.
The situation is a throwback to the scare seven years ago in 2011 when three Trinamool activists were strangulated to death, allegedly by Maoists, soon after Mamata Banerjee came to power.
A CID team is staying put in the area since the past three days taking call records of cellphones recovered from the dead — Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar.
Dulal’s family on Monday lodged a complaint with Purulia police against six Trinamool workers, including local leader Bimal Kumar, who are now in custody. “How can police call it a suicide? Dulal’s cellphone was ringing when police made a call to his number after he went missing. Even the key was hanging from the lock in his motorbike that was found lying by the village pond,” Dulal’s neighbour said.
Purulia SP Akash Magaria said he had received a co-mplaint and attached it with the unnatural death case.
BJP has planned a protest rally in Balarampur on Tuesday demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.
“Police have to come clear on the mystery deaths. How could former SP Joy Biswas wrap up the case as suicide even before the post-mortem? He held a press conference on Dulal Kumar but kept silent on Trilochan Mahato. We will intensify our agitation from Tuesday if cops fail to book the culprits,” said BJP district president Vidyasagar Chakrabarty.
BJP has called a three-day demonstration starting June 5 in front of the Purulia district magistrate’s office.