KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 15: Mystery shrouded the death of a 20-year-old youth whose mutilated body was found lying on a road leading to Ghajia bridge under Gamharia Thana area in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district late on Thursday night.
A resident of Gamharia, the victim identified as Riki Mohanty was undoubtedly killed on being hit by any heavy vehicle but the bone of contention is that whereas the members of the bereaved family maintained that the youth had fallen victim to a sand-laden tractor, the police denied involvement of any sand-laden tractor as such.
On Friday a group of residents, including the bereaved family members staged a demonstration in front of the Gamharia Thana demanding the arrest of the tractor driver responsible for the mishap.
“The mishap resulting in the death of Riki Mohanty happened due to the rash driving by the tractor driver. We want the police to arrest the erring tractor driver, ” said one of the protestors while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
The protestors dispersed from near the police station after the OC, Raju convinced them that the police would find out the killer vehicle and arrest the driver concerned.
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No trace of tractor in CCTV footage, villagers claim being witness to mishap
“We have tried to detect the tractor in question by taking out CCTV footage, but as there was no surveillance camera near the scene of the mishap we could not trace the exact identity of the killer vehicle,” said Raju while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
The OC pointed out they had found a footage from the surveillance camera installed on the Ghajia bridge.
“But there is no sign of any tractor that passed the bridge. There is footage of dumpers and trucks only and no tractor as such. The involvement about the sand-laden tractor allegedly causing the fatal mishap cropped up after a few villagers claimed that they had watched the mishap occurring,” the OC claimed.
Riki Mohanty who was the only son of his parents was killed while returning back home from an industrial unit in Adityapur on Thursday night.
Only one authorised sand-ghat in the area
Movement of sand-laden vehicles is rampant across the Seraikela-Kharsawan district, especially in Gamharia and Adityapur Thana areas despite the fact that there is no authorised sand-ghat except Soro Jaguri ghat in Subernarekha river along the Ichagarh Thana area of the district.
The newly-posted district mining officer, Jyoti Ranjan Satapathy could not be contacted for a comment, but his predecessor Sunny Kumar who was transferred to Godda district a month ago confirmed while responding to the query by The Jharkhand Story that there is only one notified sand-ghat and that is Soro Jaguri ghat in Ichagarh.
