Jamshedpur MP Sunil Mahato Shot Dead

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Member of Parliament (MP) Sunil Mahato on March 4 bore all the elements of a typical Maoist 'surprise attack'. Mahato was the chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony of the tournament, held in the memory Santosh Mahato of Nagrik Suraksha Samiti, an outfit backed by the administration to combat extremism — who was killed by Maoists a few months ago. As the 41-year old MP watched a football match on the eve of Holi at Bakuria village (near Ghatshila-40Kms. from Jamehedpur- in Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district) cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) numbering around 40-45, including women members, who were already present among the spectators came from behind the pandal where Mahto was sitting. While some of them walked up to the unsuspecting MP under the pretext of garlanding him, the others shot him with the weapons they had snatched from his bodyguards.

The rebels pumped around fourteen rounds into Mahto’s chest and abdomen from point blank range. The MP was killed on the spot along with two bodyguards (Deep Raj and Sahdeo Raj Shastri) while one of his party colleagues (Prabhakar Mahato- block secretary of JMM) died on way to the Tata Main Hospital. Another party colleague succumbed to his injuries subsequently. The rebels raised slogans before leaving with four INSAS rifles and ammunition looted from the guards. They also punctured & torched the MP’s vehicle.

The bodies of Mahto and the two bodyguards were taken to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Jamshedpur for post mortem.
The shootings took place around 6 in the evening.
Mahto, a first-time MP, represented Jamshedpur constituency and was also the party General Secretary. He had a strong mass base in the region. He had defeated BJP’s then sitting M.P. Abha Mahato by more than one lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha election.
His wife Suman and two daughters survive him.
The CPI-Maoist on March 6 claimed responsibility for the killing by putting up handwritten posters in the villages of Hadia and Lango areas under the jurisdiction of Ghorabandha police station far from the site of the killings, thus arousing suspicions that Mahato could have been the victim of his personal rivalry with the Mafia, not the Maoists. The posters, however, claimed that Mahato had instigated villagers at Lango to kill 11 Maoists, and further that Mahato was killed for two reasons: for telling contractors not to pay 'tax' to the Maoists; and, for supporting the anti-Maoist movement being led by the Nagrik Suraksha Samiti-NSS/Nasus (Citizens Defence Committee) in East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum districts. The posters declared: "He instigated innocent tribals. He asked them to kill us with arrows. We killed him with bullets."
Unlike the Jharkhand government, which preferred an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the killing, the union government was convinced of the fact that the act was the handiwork of the Maoists. Union home secretary, V.K. Duggal, stated on March 5, "Apparently, it looks like retaliatory action because as a key functionary of the Nagarik Suraksha Samiti, Mahato had been raising his voice against Naxals." The union minister of home affairs, Shivraj Patil, in a suo moto statement in the Rajya Sabha on May 6, before the Maoist posters claimed responsibility for the killing, provided a vivid description of Mahato's assassination. He also spoke of the customary reinforcements, 'sealing' of borders and combing operations to nab the culprits.
It is, however, nobody's belief that Mahato's killers would actually be caught. There is even less faith that the unlikely event of their arrest could dent the reign of the Maoists in Jharkhand.