After Beed in Maharashtra, sarpanch killed in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur

A woman sarpanch was allegedly murdered by unidentified persons at her house in Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated Jashpur district on Tuesday, just over a month after being elected as the head of her village, police said.

The incident took place at around 12 noon when the victim, Prabhavati Sidar (37), was in the vegetable garden in the backyard of her house in Dongadarha village under Tumla police station area, a police official said.

Sidar was elected as sarpanch of Dongadarha village panchayat in panchayat elections held in February this year.

As per the preliminary information, she was alone in the house at the time of the incident, and was taking a bath in the vegetable garden. When her daughter reached the spot, she found her mother seriously injured, following which she raised an alarm and called other family members and villagers, the police official said.

Sidar was shifted to the primary health centre at Kotba, where doctors declared her dead, he said.

Soon after being alerted, a police team was rushed to the spot. Later, teams of forensic experts, dog squad and cyber cell were also roped into the investigation, he said.

"Injury marks made by a sharp-edged weapon were found on her face and neck. However, the exact cause of her death will be known after the arrival of the post-mortem report," he said.

A case has been registered in this connection and further probe is underway, he said.

In neighbouring Maharashtra, the murder of a sarpanch four months back created a political storm. Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was kidnapped and tortured to death in December last year for attempts to thwart an extortion bid targeting an energy firm. Eight persons were arrested in the case.