With the intensified efforts to bring Left-wing extremism to an end in the country reaching a decisive phase, Jharkhand this week saw its biggest ever surrender of Maoists. Each surrender comes as a fresh ray of hope to the family of CRPF constable Badal Murmu, who has been missing since 2023 and is believed to have been taken captive by Maoists under Misir Besra, the last active member of the banned group’s Politburo.
However, with even the surrender of the 27 Maoists on Thursday seemingly not leading to the rescue of Badal, his wife Jhano Murmu says the rays of hope are fading quickly. Jhano says that for almost three years, after every surrender, she hoped that officials would come with “positive news” about her husband. She has submitted multiple letters to the President of India and met the Union Home Minister in person in 2024, but she says there has been no movement in the effort to trace her husband.
Senior Jharkhand Police officials told The Indian Express that if Badal Murmu is still alive, efforts to trace him would continue.
A CRPF constable of the 197 Battalion, Badal Murmu, originally from Saraikela-Kharsawan district, was posted at the Kiriburu base camp when he disappeared from Chaibasa’s Saranda forest during an official assignment. He was 34 years old at the time of his disappearance, and had been preparing to go on a month-long leave on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.
On the evening of January 5, 2023, he spoke to his wife and told her that he would return after completing a small official assignment. She says, “He told me that in the morning that he had to go to the Tumbahaka area of the Saranda forest for an inspection required before establishing a camp or tower.”
The next day, at around 10 am, when Jhano tried calling him, his phone was switched off. After repeatedly trying to contact him throughout the day, she became anxious. “Then, on January 7, two jawans came and asked us about Badal,” she says, adding that this confirmed that he was missing.
Later, the family was informed by locals from Tumbahaka that they had witnessed Badal being held hostage by Misir Besra’s troops.
Patriotic, athletic
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From the Santal community, Badal was a good athlete who dreamed of joining the Indian Army. “Because of his patriotic feelings, he was always fond of joining the armed forces,” says Mangovind Murmu, 40, Badal’s elder brother, who is a BSF constable.
Mangovind tells The Indian Express that their father, a farmer, died in 2024 after his health deteriorated while waiting for his son to return. He says both he and his brother studied hard and joined the armed forces.
Badal married Jhano in 2018 after returning to Chaibasa following multiple transfers. After joining the CRPF in 2010, he was posted in Srinagar, then Manipur, and later in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division, where one of his legs was injured in an IED blast during an anti-Maoist operation in 2017. In 2021, he received a gallantry award from the President of India for participating in an operation against Maoists in the Pidiya and Gottapalli forest areas near the Bijapur-Sukma border in Chhattisgarh.
Badal’s brother says the family has been running from pillar to post for three years in their effort to try and trace him.
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Mangovind says that some villagers have informed the family that they have occasionally spotted Badal with Besra’s troops. “He was seen wearing a simple T-shirt and chappals with Besra’s troops five days ago. We were told that he is alive but is not carrying weapons,” Mangovind says.
The Maoists are trying to turn him into one of their own, but likely don’t trust him enough to arm him, the brother believes. “We have heard that they are trying to make him read literature about Left movements and are worried that if he rejoins the force, he may help police capture Besra. Due to my brother’s damaged leg, the troops cannot walk for long. After every 500 to 600 metres, they have to rest,” Mangovind says.
Wife’s appeal
Badal’s wife lives with their six-year-old son in a poor financial condition in Uparshila village of Saraikela-Kharsawan district. She has not only urged the government to rescue her husband but has also appealed to Misir Besra to surrender and release him.
“I urge Besra to surrender and live a peaceful life with his family. I do not want my husband to die in crossfire. If Besra releases him on the condition that he leaves the security forces, I will ask my husband to quit the force. I just want to live with him and earn through agriculture,” she says.
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“We are exhausted and feel like we are being abandoned and disowned because we are Adivasis. What would have happened if a bureaucrat’s or politician’s family member had been trapped with the Maoists?” she asks.
