Khushboo,Kamlesh love story dared caste war in Naxal hotbed

According to Singh,when he reached Majhiawa village on Friday to tell the family about Khushboos murder,Arvind Sharma,a farmer,was not at home. Shobha Devi,the girls mother,received the death notice and signed it quietly. She was not willing to show anything related to Khushboo,not even her photograph.

Jab ghar se bhag gayi to bhag gayi (When she eloped,she was gone for us), said Shobha,in late 40s,adding that the pride of the family was consigned to flames the day her daughter left with a Yadav boy. She said her husband was unwell and had gone to Patna for treatment on June 17. When asked to give her husbands phone number,she said she did not remember it. The family is not even interested in getting the girls body from Punjab.

Meanwhile,villagers from Majhiawa said Kamlesh belonged to the Yadav-dominated Paharpura village under Karpi police station. Paharpura villagers said they did not try to search the boy for the fear of caste tension in the region. Police said Paharpura was a Maoist-backed area and attack on any villager would mean caste backlash. It was the police which had once questioned Kamleshs father Devdatta Yadav but did not get any information on Kamleshs whereabouts. Devdatta Yadav said Kamlesh never returned to the village after eloping with a Bhumihar girl.

Kamlesh and Khushboos was a love story between two biggest odds of Bihar society caste divide and its progeny,caste war. Khushboo Sharmas village Majhiawa has been infamous for being a stronghold of outlawed and now almost defunct private upper caste army Ranbir Sena,which was known mostly for its clashes with the then MCC,now the CPI (Maoists).