Police carried out a flag march in West Singhbhum district headquarters Chaibasa on Monday after Sunday's violence and subsequent arrest of 17 people involved in a recruitment drive to allegedly help in the formation of a separate "Kolhan estate" in Jharkhand.

West Singhbhum SP Ajay Linda said among the 17 arrested was Ajay Pariar, a CRPF jawan who the police believe is the mastermind of the fake recruitment drive and the key instigator of the violence on Sunday that left as many as seven policemen injured. "We carried out a flag march in Chaibasa and its adjoining areas on Monday while searching for more people involved in the violence," he told The Telegraph Online.

The SP said Pariar was posted in Latehar district in the paramilitary force's XI battalion, but had been absent from duty since November.

Trouble began on Sunday as soon as police swooped in on the recruitment drive, allegeldy for teachers and policement, being held at a school at Ladurabasa village under the Muffasil thana area. They arrested four of 50 candidates who had come there and brought them to the Muffasil thana. Soon around 200 people, armed with bows and arrows, marched to the police station to demand that those arrested be released immediately.

The mob then targeted policement with bows and arrows, and also hurled stones. The police then resorted to lathicharge and fired teargas cells to disperse the mob. Seven policemen, including the Muffasil thana OC, were injured. Constable Brijmohan Mishra, who was injured after being pierced by an arrow, has been admitted to Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur.

About a dozen of the attackers also sustained injuries.

Police sources said those involved in the recruitment drive had been allegedly talking about creating a "Kolhan estate" since August 2021. Apparently, ads had also been put out in vernacular dailies. But it wasn't clear why the local administration did not raise a red flag.

According to sources familiar with Jharkhand's history, the notion of a separate "Kolhan estate" was based on the Wilkinson Rules set up during the British era that claimed the Kolhan region, comprising the two Singhbhums and Seraikela-Kharsawan, were to be ruled only by those belonging to the Manki and Munda tribes.

The Wilkinson Rules, however, ceased to be valid in independent India after the framing of the Constitution. But a few tribal groups cite the old law and occasionally raise the demand for a "Kolhan estate".