PRIVATE DIARY OF A SPURNED LOVER

Ranchi: I am giving away my life to you. But you may be too busy to catch hold of it, let alone care, last entry into 23-year-old Santa Das’s private diary, read.

An office management student of St Xavier College, Das hanged herself with her dupatta under strange circumstances at her lodge recently. Das’s boyfriend had dumped her, suggested 200-odd words suicide note.

“What was my fault? What was it that made you leave me for ………?” Das wished to ask, but her voice ditched her too.

Das wanted to speak to her love about the pain he had given, but her love hardly had time to listen. Cowardly, however, Das was not careless about her guy, at the very least.

“After I am gone, you will not be able to live with her happily. It is all that I know,” advised the tribal girl.

Certain scrawls in the succeeding paragraph indicated Das wanted to advice her guy to keep away from his new love. But once again her strength collapsed.

Das, who hails from Dhanbad district, was staying in Ranchi for the last four years. On the basis of a suicide note police suspect a triangle love affair was behind the incident.

“It appears that the boy, with whom Das is suspected to be having an affair, had recently developed relations with another girl. The deceased seems to be depressed over it,” said officer in-charge of Lower Bazaar police station A K Giri.

The suicide note does not however specify any name. The mobile phone of Das has gone missing, leaving the police clueless about Das’s boyfriend.

Words from Das’s diary have the police more confused. A paragraph loosely suggests: “I had told you if you cheat me, I will either kill myself or kill you. I hope killing myself is better.”

Das’s cousins told TOI they had no clue about the love affair of the girl. “I don’t know anything,” said one of her cousin sisters, who also studies at St Xavier.

But girls staying in a room next to that of Das’s at the lodge are not totally clueless. “Of late she had become more reserved than she actually was. We wanted to know, and she was uneasy,” said a friend of Shanta, who is preparing for Bank PO examinations.

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BEWARE: TRUCKS AND SUVS ARE HIJACKED HERE

Ranchi: Gangs from Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, UP and Bihar are hijacking trucks and SUVs from Ranchi and adjoining districts in Jharkhand at gunpoint.

President of Jharkhand Truck Owners Association (JTOA), Uday Shankar Ojha has claimed that 50-odd trucks have been hijacked from Ranchi and adjoining districts in the past six months.

“All truck owners are scared. The incidents occur mostly on Ranchi-Patna, Ranchi-Tata highway and Barhi national highway,” Ojha told TOI. “I do not know the exact number. But I have received complaints from these truck owners,” added Ojha.

Even cops agree that there have been a series of hijacking (vehicles theft). The hijackers are experts in truck and SUVs theft.

A source in the police informed TOI: “In Delhi NCR over a dozen gangs engaged in lifting trucks, SUVs and autos have been busted recently. While petty criminals have been arrested there, kingpins have escaped and moved to Jharkhand and Bihar.”

Ranchi is one of the epicentres of such hijackings. Ranchi SSP Saket K Singh claimed that city police have been able to nab many of such hijackers.

“Quite a few cases of trucks and SUVs lifting have been registered at various police stations. It is generally a winter season phenomenon. Now we have increased vigil on national highways. It has led to good results too,” city SP Ranjeet K Prasad said.

City’s Ormanjhi police station has solved one case. “A Haryana based gang was involved in lifting the vehicle. Around half a dozen criminals have been arrested,” said a senior cop at Ormanjhi PS. Inroads have also been made into investigation of the lifting of a truck from city’s Booty More under Sadar PS.

A source in the police informed that the gangs generally comprise of around half a dozen hijackers. “They move by an SUV of their own. They give their target vehicles, be it a truck or an SUV, a chase. As soon as they seize “the right moment” they intercept and hijack the vehicle at gunpoint,” said the source. Sources suggest that a few city based criminals who have been recently released on bail are also involved into such activities.

Hazaribagh is 100 km far from Ranchi. A 40-odd km highway between Ranchi and Hazaribagh passes through several thickly forested and zigzag Ghatis. Police presence here (in Ghatis) is sparse. Thus it gives the hijackers the moments of confidence. At a number of occasions drivers and cleaners have been found with their hands and legs tied and left in the forests.

Hazaribagh SP Pankaj Kamboj has also busted around half a dozen such gangs in recent months. “Police stations situated throughout all these Ghatis (including those at entry and exit points) have been instructed to maintain strict checks. It has not only helped us recover vehicles lifted from Ranchi and other parts of the state, but also from adjoining states,” said Kamboj.

At times, vehicle lifters had abandoned the vehicles in Ghatis, he added. After TOI intervention Ranchi SSP and Hazaribagh SP have promised to increase police vigil at strategic points to further check such incidents.

The truck owners association, however, is least satisfied. A delegation of JTOA will meet DGP Gauri Shankar Rath to demand strict measures to give commuters on Jharkhand’s highways a fearless passage.

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THIS STORY CAN MAKE YOU CRY AND LAUGH

Ranchi: As a housekeeping boy at a non-descript hotel in Jamshedpur, Satish Chandra Buriuly, had never dreamt of a Rs 10 lakh job offer. But with a degree from Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, he now has two equally lucrative job offers to choose from.

This became possible because of Buriuly’s 10 years of undaunted struggle and undying support of his girlfriend. Buriuly’s tale is a story of “agonic hardships”, “committed love” and “super success”.  

Things were fine till 1999. Till this time Buriuly had just two degrees, matriculation with 51% marks in 1996 and intermediate with 50% marks in 1999. Due to unavoidable reasons he had to take a one-year break from studies.

“After my father’s death in 2000, my destiny took extreme turns. I worked as a housekeeping boy, as a door-to-door salesman, as a school van driver, and as a temporary computer operator,” Buriuly, 32, told TOI at the expansive IIM-Ranchi campus.

Buriuly hails from tribal dominated Chaibasa, headquarter of West Singhbhum district. Before IIM-Ranchi, Buriuly was academically average and had a Hindi medium academic background.

“It was beyond my dreams. I could see nothing. I could hear nothing. I could feel nothing. It was like a fantasy,” said Buriuly whose mother had died when he was 3-year-old. His stepmother brought up Buriuly.

“I had to abandon further studies in 2000. I had just passed my intermediate then. I was the eldest son and I had to run from pillar to post to get pension for my ‘mother’,” Buriuly said narrating his story.

This 5-member Buriuly family was now dependent on their small landholdings for two square meals daily. “In Chaibasa only paddy is grown. It is grown only once in a year. It was not enough and we were deep into credit,” Buriuly recalled.

In 2001 hunger drove Buriuly to Jamshedpur in search of jobs. “I was in desperate need and I did odd jobs to earn Rs 1500 to 2000 per month. Nothing worked. I was frustrated,” said Buriuly while looking back on his life.

Someone suggested me to learn computer and I did. “I worked at a computer institute for meagre sums in 2003 in Jamshedpur. In 2006 I got a computer operator’s job on temporary basis in Noamundi,” said Buriuly. During this period this tribal boy bought a used van. “I drove it myself and carried school children to make additional money,” recalled the IIM graduate.

“I was not ready to accept this as my destiny. At times I used to worry and break down,” admitted Buriuly.

But there is someone who will never allow Satish to break down. “It is my love. When I had nothing and no one was around, she was always there to stand by me,” said Buriuly.

“She is 30. Despite tremendous pressure from her family for marriage, she is still single. She has been waiting for me through these year,” Buriuly told TOI with moist eyes.

Buriuly’s girlfriend got job of a teacher at a government high school last year. She even financed Satish’s sundry expanses during his second year at IIM. Satish did not divulge details about his girlfriend to protect her identity. “I will name her in public only after I marry her,” he said.

It was his girlfriend who motivated him to do graduation. “I took admission in Tata College Chaibasa for degree course in 2006. I had to start study all over again after six years,” he said. Unable to speak English in 2006, Buriuly also started going to an English spoken class.

In 2009, Buriuly cleared CAT with 80.8 percentile. Thanks to quotas for Scheduled Tribe he made it to IIM. It was through the help of his acquaintances that Buriuly deposited Rs 1.10 lakh for admission to IIM.

An IT company has made an offer while a leading manufacturer of handmade carpets has made another offer. “We are very proud of this boy,” said IIM Ranchi director MJ Xavier.

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