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Lalgarh (Bengal): By the third week of April, Lalgarh, under the Jhargram district of Bengal’s Jangalmahal had already begun to scorch. At midday, the heat is relentless, with temperatures soaring to 39° Celsius.

Moving right from Lalgarh along a narrow forest trail, the road is eerily deserted. Occasionally, a lone cyclist passes by breaking the silence. After covering nearly 10 kilometres, this reporter arrives at the Modhyamkumari village, a place known across the country, not for its serenity, but for a brutal killing that took place here 16 years ago, an act of violence that seemed to surpass even medieval barbarity.

Most of the residents of this village belong to the Santhal tribal community.

On the ground floor of a a two-storey house, a frail elderly woman is resting. When this reporter calls out to her, the woman steps out of the room. Her body is bent and fragile. She begins speaking incoherently.

Chitamoni Saren, the mother of Shalku Soren, who was killed by Maoists in 2010. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.

“When will my Shalku return? Are you his friends? All his friends come to see me, but Shalku will not come. He was killed by Maoists, using sharp weapons.”

Her words hand heavily in the still air.

“The country must hear, they must be told, why Shalku was killed in such a way. Why were we not allowed to see his dead body? Why did his body lie infested with worms in a mango garden at Dharampur for three days? What crime had my son committed?” she asks.

The name of the elderly woman is Chitamani Saren. She is the mother of Shalku Saren.

The People’s War Group, which later merged with the Maoist Communist Centre of India, to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has been active in the forested and border areas of Jangalmahal – covering districts such as Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia, and Bankura – since 2001. The group led a series of elimination campaigns in the region.

Their primary targets, according to locals this reporter has spoken to over the course of years, were well-known and popular CPI(M) workers in the area. The intention was to politically embarrass the then Left Front government in the state.

Primary school teacher Lakshman Mandal from Jhilimili in Bankura’s Ranibandh, Tapan Mahato from Lodhasuli village in Jhargram, farmer Rothu Singh from Bandowan in Purulia and several others this reporter spoke to during his journey to and from Modhyamkumari said that the killings had been brutal.

In districts such as Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram, a series of killings were reported almost daily. Local accounts describe that the bodies of poor tribal and non-tribal people began to surface frequently, leading to alarm and a fearful atmosphere across the region.

On November 2,........

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