Chhattisgarh News

Four CRPF jawans were killed in a mine blast on Wednesday morning in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur. Maoists are suspected to have carried out the blasts while the CRPF men were going for a civic action programme for the villagers. CRPF personnel are reportedly still engaged in an encounter with the Maoists near a forest in Bijapur.

Four CRPF jawans were killed and three severely injured in indiscriminate firing by Maoists in south Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Wednesday morning. The Maoists attacked when a team of CRPF personnel was preparing to leave with medicines, clothes and toys for Bijapur's villagers as part of the civic action programme. Several Maoists were reportedly killed in an encounter afterwards.

According to various exit polls, BJP is set to make an impressive comeback in Rajasthan and comfortably retain Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The polls gave BJP 130-140 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, while 121-128 seats in the 230-member MP assembly. In Chhattisgarh, BJP might have a slight edge of 1-2 seats over Congress, whereas in Mizoram, Congress would lead.

Incumbent Chief Minister Raman Singh won a third straight victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Chhattisgarh 2013 Assembly elections on Sunday, with the party getting an absolute majority. While the BJP bagged 49 of the 90 seats, the Congress, which at one time looked as if it would oust the BJP, managed to win 39 seats.

Raman Singh was sworn-in as the CM of Chhattisgarh for the third consecutive time on Thursday. The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Rajnath Singh, LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, among others. BJP registered victory in Chhattisgarh by winning 49 of the 90 assembly seats.

In yet another incident in Chhattisgarh, Jashpur's 11 persons, including four women and five children, belonging to tribal groups are learnt to be kept in captivity as slaves by some contractors in West Bengal. An investigation has been ordered into the case. In Sept-2013, eight minors were sold off to contractors in Tamil Nadu who were later traced in MP.

In efforts to reach out to the tribal in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit Sukma district, and to expose them to the outside world, CRPF has initiated screening Bollywood films for them. Under this initiative, Salman-starrer 'Kick' was screened for them. "It was for the first time when villagers saw an aeroplane, train and big buildings shown in the movie." a villager said.

A 55-year-old woman, Dukalhin Bai Patel, was allegedly beaten to death by her family members, in Bemetara district of Chattisgarh, who suspected her of practising 'black magic', police said Monday. According to the deceased's son Ashok, his family members suspected that she practised black magic on a child in their family. Police arrested 12 persons in this case on Saturday.