Devansh Mehta, Ramesh Kunjam
1st October 2020
At 10:30 pm on February 3rd 2018, Manoj Podiyam heard a noise outside his house. Thinking that someone was damaging cars parked outside, he got up from his bed and asked, “who is there?” These were his last words as Maoists surrounding his house answered with a hail of bullets that killed him and left behind only a red flag as their calling card.
“They killed him in front of me. My sister who was living with us also got hit in the leg after a bullet ricocheted from the wall,” said Savita Podiyam, who was married to Manoj and had a 1-year-old daughter at the time.
Manoj Podiyam was a driver and also took up contracts for building roads. His brother Sukhlal Podiyar thinks he was killed for building a road near Toylanka, which the Maoists did not want constructed. After the murder, 2 laborers working on the project fled back to their home state of Jharkhand, leaving the road uncompleted to this day.
As the primary breadwinner of the family, Manoj’s murder had deep ramifications. All the 4 other brothers decided to leave their hometown and live elsewhere due to fear, and Sukhlal had to quit his education and work on the family farm and take up driving assignments to make ends meet.
In the year after Manoj’s death, his wife Savita experienced financial issues and took up a job at a government hostel in the nearby town, where she has been living for the last 2 years. She has also received the Rs. 500,000 (USD 1650) compensation given to the families of victims, which she has put in a fixed deposit until the need arises to spend it for their only daughter’s education or marriage.
