Jamshedpur: Family members of two Odisha youths, believed to have been killed at Goilkera in West Singhbhum district, filed a missing persons’ complaint with the office of the SDPO Chakradharpur on Wednesday. West Singhbhum SP Ashutosh Shekhar, however, didn’t confirm the deaths, saying the case was still being probed.
The SP further said the family members claimed in their police complaint that they spoke to the two youths on Monday night, the day the duo left Odisha. Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta also said they were trying to locate the duo and would provide a statement in the case in the next 24 hours.
Notably, a few vernacular dailies reported on Thursday that the two were allegedly lynched by a mob on suspicion of being cattle thieves.
According to their police complaint, the family members said two youths, Sheikh Shahdali (25) and Sheikh Nazir, residents of Tentoposi village in Rairangpur block of Mahyurbhanj district in Odisha, were missing since they left home for Goilkera.
Sources in Goilkera claimed that the duo came to Jharkhand along with three other men. The five youths, who were travelling in an SUV, reached the Kebra-Auranga stretch near the Saranda forest area on Tuesday. Suspecting the five to be cattle thieves, the villagers intercepted the vehicle and dragged all of them deep into the forest. While three of them managed to untie the rope and flee the spot, Shahid and Nazir were allegedly lynched by the mob, the sources added.
The SP, however, said there were different versions about the number of persons who were travelling in the SUV. “We are verifying everything,” he added.
Talking to the media in Ranchi, Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta, said police were on the job to locate the missing youths.
“There are apprehensions that something untoward might have happened with the two. In the next 24 hours, we will be in a position to speak on the matter,” the DGP said.
In the backdrop of the two missing youths being killed, East Singhbhum DC Kuldeep Chaudhary and SP Shekhar chaired a meeting of village heads, panchayat samiti members, intellectuals and common people of different villages of Goilkera police station limits on Thursday. The meeting, held at the Goilkera block office, was aimed at ensuring the locals’ cooperation in maintaining peace and order in the villages.
Meanwhile, former CM and BJP leader Babulal Marandi raised the issue of “increasing lawlessness” in the Gudri block of West Singhbhum on social media. He claimed that missing reports of 22 people have been lodged and 10 people have been killed in the Gudri block in recent days. He demanded that CM Hemant Soren and the state administration respond to the situation urgently.