On December 4, 1999, Com. Kunwar Kalyan Jha, a district committee member of the party was killed by goons of the Maoist Communist Centre while he was irrigating his fields at around 1 p.m. He was approached by one person with whom he was seen entering into some kind scuffle and then after a few minutes, three more came and fired four shots killing him on the spot.

From all accounts, that this team heard, no one in the area expected attempt on Com Jha’s life for he bore no personal ill-will towards anyone or anyone had any grouse against him. In fact, his image in the area was that of saintly person. And he was easily elected as Mukhiya of the panchayat without much difficulty.

Apparently no tangible reason is visible for this attack. The real reasons have to found in the CPI(M)’s intensified land and wage struggle and the growing activities concerning the other mass issues in the district. The landlords, criminals, the police and administration and the extremists of all varieties both left and right have all ganged up against CPI(M) and utilize every opportunity to attack and weaken the CPI(M) and the movement led by it. The CPI(M) has lost 4 valuable comrades during 8 months’ tenure of the present Superintendent of police who was posted just before the Lok Sabha election. Till the evening of 5th December 99, this SP did not find the time to visit Shivram village, the place of occurrence of this ghastly crime whereas his superior officers were claiming at Patna that he was camping there and carrying out raids to nab the culprits.

The CPI(M) until this incident has had no clash with the MCC anywhere and till this cowardly murder of Com. Jha, there did not appear to be any reason for physical clash with them even in this area of Baheri block. But Com. Jha was a stout defender of Marxism-Leninism and the party line and brook no ideological compromise. His commitment to ideology coupled with his personal image was proving too much of a counter-weight to be tolerated for the MCC and other vested interests. The role of police in this incident is also dubious.

The Bihar state committee of the CPI(M) has condemned this cowardly killing of Com. Jha and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits, adequate compensation to family of Com. Jha and a government job for his son and security for the family.

S. Ramachandran Pillai, MP, president and N.K. Shukla, joint secretary of All India Kisan Sabha have issued the following statement: