8 extremists booked for killing cops

dhanbad: the dhanbad police on saturday submitted chargesheet against eight extremists accused of killing 13 constables of the jharkhand armed police (jap) at topchanchi on october 31 last year. the court of cjm, dhanbad, took cognizance of the chargesheet and sent it for trial. the extremists chargesheeted in the case are premchand mahto, rawan manjhi, pitamber manjhi alias pitamber mahto, ramchandra rana, hiramuni devi, yogesh hansda, lakshman mahto and sanjoti kumari alias shanti.all the accused, who have been charged under sections 396 and 120(b) of the ipc, section 13 of the unlawful activities prevention act, section 27 of the arms act and section 217(3) of the cla act are under judicial custody at present. the police have claimed in the chargesheet that they have sufficient evidence against whom the chargesheet has been submitted. the police have sent the explosives, including petrol bombs, recovered from topchanchi police picket, the site of attack, to the forensic laboratory (vidhi vigyan prayogshala) in ranchi for test and a chargesheet under the relevant section of the explosives act would be filed only after test report is received from the laboratory. it can be recalled here that about 150 extremists had attacked the topchanchi police picket on october 31 last year and killed 13 jap jawans. the extremists also took away the arms and ammunitions of the jawans. the daredevil act of the extremists to attack a police picket situated just by the side of busy gt road at topchanchi in broad daylight had badly shaken the confidence of the jharkhand government which launched a special drive in the rocky and bushy terrain of topchanchi and adjoining areas of giridih and bokaro districts to arrest the extremists. it was during one of these drives that the police chanced upon to arrest sanjoti kumari alias shanti, who not only confessed her involvement in the attack but also revealed the names of other hundred persons involved in the attack. topchanchi ps case no 174/2001 in this connection was lodged on the basis of the statement of the injured jawan moti choudhary.