RANCHI, May 31 -- A fierce political showdown erupted in Jharkhand following the brutal murder of Anita Devi, a four-month pregnant 25-year-old woman from the marginalised Bhuiyan community in Bermo, Bokaro district. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the ruling dispensation of shielding the perpetrators, while the Congress party strongly hit back, asserting that the law is taking its course independently.

Addressing a press conference at the party's state headquarters in Ranchi, BJP state general secretary Amar Kumar Bauri alleged that a "coal mafia" syndicate, flourishing under the patronage of the Congress party, beat the woman to death in public view in front of her husband. He claimed the perpetrators later moved th...