A BJP team of five MPs and an MLA was prevented on Friday from visiting Burugulikera village, where suspected pathalgadi supporters killed seven men on Sunday night.

The BJP team members said they wanted to visit the village, in Chakradharpur sub-division of West Singhbhum district, to carry out an independent inquiry into the massacre.

The local administration stopped them at Keraikela, citing Section 144 of the CrPC that has been promulgated in the entire sub-division.

The BJP team comprised Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor (MP from Gujarat), Rajya Sabha member Samir Oraon, Bharti Pawar (MP from Maharashtra), Gomati Sai (MP from Chhattisgarh), John Barla (MP from West Bengal) and Khunti MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda.

They had reached Chakradharpur sub-division by 11am. They managed to get to the Sonua police station, around 35km from the village, by 12.30pm.

When the administration stopped them citing Section 144, they staged a sit-in on the NH-75 demanding permission to go to Burugulikera.

However, the administration refused to budge.

The BJP team decided to turn back at 5pm.

“By preventing us from visiting the affected village, the administration has tried to hush up the truth,” Khunti MLA Munda told The Telegraph.

“We are going back, but we will not sit idle. We will soon chalk out an action plan for bringing out the truth behind the ghastly massacre of seven villagers at Burugulikera.

The BJP team stages a sit-in near Sonua police station in West Singhbhum district on Friday The Telegraph picture

“In view of the administration’s step of imposing Section 144, five persons can not move together. We, therefore, requested the administration to allow four of the visiting members to go to Burugulikera village but they did not agree to even allow that.

“Then only it became clear that the administration was not in favour of allowing us to talk to the victims’ family members,” Munda added.

He said the officials said the team members could stay at a guesthouse in Chakradharpur, around 75km from Burugulikera, till January 27 when the administration would take the team to the village.

“Apart from the prohibitory order imposed in the sub-division, there was concern about the visiting team’s safety,” Chakradharpur sub-divisional officer (SDO) Pradeep Prasad told The Telegraph when asked why the BJP lawmakers were not allowed to visit the village.

“As most of the police officials were camping at Burugulikera village and we have to have adequate number of police personnel for ROP (road opening party) as is the practice in the Naxalite-infested area, we were left with no other option than to prevent the team from proceeding toward Burugulikera,” the SDO added.

He pointed out that the road from Sonua to Burugulikera is extremely bad.

Vehicles can only go up to 25km ahead, that too at no greater a speed than 10kmph.

He said anyone who wants to get to the village has to walk the rest 10km.

Police personnel, including senior officers, also had to walk the last 10km.

“There is no other reason behind not allowing the team to visit Burugulikera,” the SDO said.

“We had even offered to put them up at a local guesthouse till January 27 when we would have been taken the team members to the affected village. There was no other consideration apart from their security ”