'I heard on TV that I was dead'

suchithkc

Ranchi, Jan. 24: He heard the gut-wrenching sound of an explosion, missed a gruesome death by a whisker, lost a dear colleague and was labelled deceased by an extra alert vernacular television channel. Yet, Bhandaria BDO Basudeo Prasad has not wavered from his line of duty.

Three days after a Maoist landmine blast near Bargarh village in Garhwa killed Bhandaria officer in charge Rajbali Chowdhary, 11 JAP jawans and the driver of an armoured vehicle, Prasad, in a t�te-�-t�te with The Telegraph at his Ranchi residence, recounts how an intuition saved his life on January 21.

The clock said 6.25am when Basudeo (not Vasudev as reported earlier) Prasad's phone rang on Saturday. "It was Rajbali. He told me that villagers of Bargarh led by Ramdas Minz were staging a dharna, demanding shift of a proposed health centre. He said the protests had begun at 5am. The time of protest, particularly on a winter day, struck me as strange… rather very strange," the 46-year-old mused over a cup of coffee at his Samlong home.

Prasad, who had assumed charge in Bhandaria in May last year, decided to wait and watch, and went back to sleep. He was jolted out of his slumber by a second call from his policeman friend. It was 8.30am.

"Rajbali requested me to go to Bargarh immediately because 300-odd villagers had assembled and he feared the situation would spiral out of control. I told him that my driver was yet to come. He asked me to take their armoured vehicle (the same one that was blown up). At first, I agreed. But then, I remembered that I needed to take some land papers, which were lying with the circle inspector. I decided to take a detour."

This saved the BDO's life.

Prasad, along with circle inspector B. Oraon and Bhandaria mukhiya Vinay Singh Kharwar, proceeded for Bargarh around 10.55am in the BDO's official vehicle.

"During the 15km journey, everything seemed normal, except an eerie silence disturbed only by the drone of our car engine. Before starting fr-om Bhandaria, I spoke to Rajbali. He told me that he and other policemen would follow us in the armoured vehicle. He suggested that we wait for him at least a kilometre away from the dharna venue."

nThree freed, Page 4

They waited, but only to hear a "disturbing sound". Later, JAP jawans from Bargarh police picket, 2km from away, approached them with the horrifying news of a Maoist attack. The officials were escorted to the picket, while some jawans waited near the village for reinforcement to arrive.

More horror was in store for Prasad. "At the picket, I saw a vernacular TV channel flashing the day's breaking news. I heard OC Rajbali Chowdhary was dead. I went numb with sorrow. The jolly good fellow had promised us a litti party that evening. I had barely swallowed his death news when I heard them say that I was dead! Horrified, I rushed to call my home in Ranchi. Fortunately, my wife had been busy with household chores and my son was watching some cartoon channel. They had not heard of the Garhwa incident," the father of three (two daughters and a son) heaved a sigh.

Busy entering data on MGNREGS projects into his laptop, the BDO said he would join work in a day or two. "I am not afraid. I am not going to ask the government for transfer," he signed off.