On the evening of 31 March, CPI(ML) MLA Rajkumar Yadav received a threat on his mobile from an extremist group PLFI that if he does not pay up Rs 20 lakhs within one week he will be killed just as Mahendra Singh was killed.
CPI(ML) said this was a political conspiracy, and announced a state-wide protest on 2 April. This is not a simple case of threat for extortion by an extremist group, but a conspiracy by the same forces which carried out the political conspiracy to murder Com. Mahendra Singh in order to stop the growing influence of the CPI (ML) in Giridih district as well as in the entire State. The politician involved in the conspiracy to kill Com. Mahendra Singh is the present BJP State President Ravindra Rai, who is from Raj Dhanwar and whom Com. Rajkumar had given a tough fight in the last Lok Sabha election. It is noteworthy that in the recently concluded Panchayat elections, CPI(ML) representatives won in good numbers, enhancing the political profile of the Party. On the other hand, growing disenchantment of the people poses a tough challenge to Ravindra Rai’s being re-elected in the Koderma Parliamentary constituency.
The Party held a state-wide protest on 2 April to demand a high level enquiry into this matter and arrest of the true culprits. Ranchi CPI(ML) State Secretary Janardan Prasad led the joint protest march by AISA, AIPF and CPI(ML) from the Party office to the Albert Ekka chowk where an effigy of the government was burnt.
Addressing the protest meeting Com. Janardan Prasad said that democratic rights and the true representatives of the people are not safe under the Raghuvar government. Com. Mahendra Singh was killed in a political conspiracy during the rule of the BJP’s Arjun Munda government. Now under the Raghuvar government, Com. Rajkumar is being threatened. The people of Jharkhand will give a befitting reply to this. The protest programme was attended by AISA members as well as CPI(ML), Jan Sanskriti Manch and AIPWA members. Protests were also held in Godda, Devghar and Dhanbad.
