The slain BJP leader, Birju Taram, aged 53, was the deputy president of the BJP’s farmers’ wing and had previously served as the general secretary of the Manpur division.The incident occurred in Sarkheda village, located three kilometers from the nearest Aundhi police station, around 8 pm.
It was a busy day for Birju Tekam, who was part of a public rally led by senior BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh in the Mohla region on Friday. Upon returning to his village, he performed rituals and worshipped goddess Durga in the temple before returning home. Local party workers claimed that Birju was killed for worshipping the Goddess.
Birju was walking outside his house with a few people when three individuals on the same bike approached and opened fire on him. Birju was struck by four bullets and fell dead on the road in a pool of blood.
Police quickly arrived at the scene, and investigations began. District SP Ratna Singh told reporters that the incident was under investigation, and the involvement of Maoist is also being examined.
Mohla-Manpur additional SP Vivek Shukla said that as per the initial investigations, Maoist involvement cannot be denied. Evidence of firearms used in the incident indicates their involvement. However, we are also probing other aspects as being alleged and anticipated by local villagers.
Chhattisgarh Elections: ‘Part of political conspiracy,’ Former CM Raman Singh condemns death of BJP worker Birju Taram
Contradicting the possibility of a Maoist attack, a senior local resident in Ambagarh Chowki, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that a known troublemaker from the tribal community, Sarju Tekam, had been in conflict with other tribe members over idol worship. Previously, this suspect and his supporters had desecrated the idol of goddess Durga installed at the temple. An idol reinstallation was performed on the first day of this Navratri under the leadership of Birju Tekam, a prominent tribal figure in the Mohala Manpur region. He was killed because he worshipped the goddess. The informant said that Sarju had publicly threatened that BJP leaders would be killed if they campaigned during elections.
Locals and family members of Birju have gathered around his body in protest, demanding the arrest of the suspect they have identified as the murderer. They insist that they will not allow anyone to touch the body, and the last rites will only be performed after action is taken against the accused.
Former chief minister and senior BJP leader Raman Singh expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Chhattisgarh. He compared it to the situation in West Bengal, emphasizing that political killings are unacceptable and objectionable.
“Birju, our senior party worker, had welcomed me on stage during the public rally and was murdered hours later. His only crime was being a BJP worker who supported worshipping the Durga idol,” Singh said. He held the district administration and the government responsible for Birju’s murder, as they failed to take action against the person who issued an open threat.
Chhattisgarh BJP President Arun Sao called it a “targeted killing” intended to intimidate and discourage party workers. However, he asserted that they would not back down and would work to regain power from Congress in the upcoming elections to restore law and order in the state.
“One more BJP leader was martyred in the state. The murder of BJP worker Birju Taram is a targeted killing, and his sacrifice will not be in vain, and our workers will not be intimidated by this,” Sao said in a video statement.
Mohla-Manpur was separated from the Maoist-hit Rajnandgaon district last year and shares a border with Kanker district. It is one of twenty constituencies going to the polls in the first phase of the two-phase elections on November 7.
The BJP had previously expressed concerns and demanded a high-level investigation into the successive targeted killings of BJP workers in the Bastar region. Three party workers were murdered in Bijapur and Narayanpur districts in a series of incidents.
In the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of Bastar division, a former sarpanch and local BJP tribal leader, Kaka Arjun, was abducted and killed by Maoist on June 21.
Maoists murdered former sarpanch and BJP working committee member Ramdhar Alami, who had been active for fifteen years in Dantewada district on February 11, accusing him of being a police informer and taking money for local projects.
On February 10, BJP district vice-president Sagar Sahu was shot dead by Maoists inside his home in Narayanpur district, and another BJP committee president, Neelkanth Kakkem, was murdered in the Awapalli region of Bijapur district on February 5. Former sarpanch and BJP leader Budhram Kartam was attacked by Maoists while on a walk on January 16 in Jagdalpur.
Former BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi was killed in a Maoist ambush when he was returning from campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in April 2019. His vehicle was blown up by an IED blast in Shyamgiri, killing Mandavi and four others, including a driver, on the spot.
