Sanjeeta Kumari’s dream of making a fresh start in life was shattered
this week when Maoist insurgents killed her for allegedly spying on
behalf of the police. Her blood-stained body was found near the hills of
Gumla in Jharkhand on Thursday October 8th.
Kumari, who also went by the name of Guddi, was lured into the outlaw
group when she was 11 by a neighbour and transformed from a cook into a
crack shot, serving under the Maoist banner for eight years, before she
decided to turn over a new leaf.
The 20-year-old ran away from the rebels and went into hiding in
Gumla, where she rented a house and enrolled herself at a local school
but the outlaws continued to threaten her regularly.
When Hindustan Times met her on July 28, Guddi recounted chilling tales of the
looming threat to her life but said she was committed to her studies and
wouldn’t return to the extremist fold under any condition.
"I cannot surrender because the moment my leaders come to know, they
will kill my parents and siblings," she told HT, on the condition that
her story wouldn’t be published.
"I will be able to study as long as I am not identified and captured
or my bosses in the jungle do not take me away forcibly," she said.
But her dream wasn’t to be. When she went home to see her parents and
siblings in the Maoist-infested village of Sibil on Tuesday, she was
abducted by the insurgents, who left a handwritten note saying Guddi had
to die because she didn’t mend her ways despite several warnings.
Her body was brought to the hospital by local villagers, not police
personnel, who live in constant fear of Maoist attacks.
"She was not our
spy, and do we not know of any Maoist related case against her name so
far," said Gumla police superintendent Bhimsen Tuti.
Guddi said she was lured into the group by her neighbour Savita Didi,
who was a Maoist leader. Guddi served as a cook for a year before
undergoing arms training and became an expert at handling Insas rifles
and carbines.
Once fighting the forces in the Latehar jungles, a bullet pierced
through her foot.
"With the injured foot, I ran and walked for four days
and nights till we reached a safer place," she said.
She fell in love with zonal commander Kanchan and wanted to marry him but he died from police bullets in an encounter.
Guddi also said Maoist commanders regularly exploit women sexually
but it was often projected as consensual sex.
"Abortions are a routine
affair as female commanders cannot become mothers," she had said.
"When I had left the camp in April, there were 23 minor girls in
zonal commander Nakulji’s camp, few of them were as young as 10 years."
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