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Chhattisgarh assembly hit by Dantewada rampage
RAIPUR: The opposition Congress legislators paralysed the Chhattisgarh assembly proceedings on Monday over alleged police rampage in Dantewada district, claiming that "Chhattisgarh is under jungle raj (rule of the jungle), not under (chief minister) Raman raj."
Soon after the question hour, Congress members were on their feet raising slogans and demanding a discussion on the issue under an adjournment motion.The house was adjourned for 10 minutes amid ruckus by Congress members despite Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik assuring them that the alleged killings of tribals and burning of their homes by security forces in Dantewada would be discussed under a calling attention notice.When the house reassembled, members of the Congress, which has 39 legislators in the 90-member assembly, were still raising slogans, drowning the statement by Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar in the uproar.Leader of opposition Ravindra Choubey alleged that the security forces killed many people, burnt down over 300 houses and raped women in the poverty-hit tribal villages between March 14 and 16.
He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Chief Minister Raman Singh of remaining silent on the issue."Dead bodies are still lying in Tarmetla and nearby villages in Dantewada. The killings of the tribals were executed under government protection and it is most unfortunate that the police are not allowing anyone to visit the place," Choubey said.
He referred to the attack against Swami Agnivesh, who was Friday pulled out of his car and attacked by a mob that included Salwa Judum cadres and policemen in Dornapal town while he was heading to the villages to assess the police excesses.
The opposition claimed that there was no government administration in Dantewada and that the tribals are left to god's mercy as the police and the Maoists are targeting them.When the speaker refused to take up the issue under adjournment motion, Congress legislators announced boycott of the house for the whole day.
The alleged attack by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers along with the Koya commandos, a unit of local tribals fighting the Maoists, in three tribal hamlets near Tarmetla has led to widespread criticism against the security forces and the state government.
The tribals of these hamlets alleged that the security forces assaulted women, killed livestock and burnt nearly 200 houses over three-four days.Many were illegally detained and some people are still unaccounted for, they said.
The Tarmetla area is where the outlawed rebels slaughtered 76 troopers in April last year.
Predator, protector: A thin khaki line?
For many, it is like a horror film produced and directed by the Dantewada police. In a week-long operation against the Maoists starting March 11, the state's Special Police Officers (SPOs) have allegedly burnt homes in three villages, killed five men and sexually assaulted three women.
Many feel that SPOs dangerously lack discernment. Here's what Dantewada's police chief, SRP Kalluri has stated on record. In January 2011, he accused the International Red Cross and Medicines Sans Frontieres of abetting Maoists. Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan issued a retraction the next day.
Last year in July, Kalluri named one Lingaram Kopodi as the mastermind of a Maoist attack. Kopodi turned out to be a journalism student in Noida. Recent events have put the focus on police brutality — and the mindset that allows this.
A local politician is emphatic: "Kalluri is a dictator." But the man in the eye of the storm is unfazed. Short, stern and devout (visitors to his office are greeted by incense wafting from a small shrine), he retorts "there is no dictatorship. This is a vibrant democracy. If there are specific complaints against me, people are free to approach my seniors in Raipur."
It is true Kalluri's tenure in Dantewada has coincided with a string of horror stories. Take a recent one. This February, Kalmu, an 18-year-old insurance agent with Bajaj Allianz, was picked up, beaten, locked up for 21 days and accused of being the mastermind of the killing in the murga bazaar kaand. The "kaand" is how villagers around Sukma remember the events of January 24, when Ismail Khan, the leader of a group of SPOs, was shot dead.
All hell broke loose after the killing. "The SPOs began to indiscriminately round up and beat the adivasis. The entire market downed shutters and rushed home," recounts a shopkeeper.
Then, there was the case of Veku Kosa, who was shot dead by a group of SPOs. The police claimed he was a Maoist. "But he was not carrying a gun, just a shopping bag," says an eyewitness. Kosa's neighbour Deva Ram Vetti recounts finding the spot where he died "three days later...the shopping bags, and rotting bananas were still lying there."
Political parties are baying for Kalluri's head. In a letter to the Prime Minister in November, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan wrote that "this notorious police officer is intimidating and torturing innocent tribals and ultimately pushing them to the fold of the Maoists."
But curiously, the most searing indictment comes from the officer's own department. "He promised the CM he would wipe out Maoists in one year. But all he has done is wipe out our intelligence network," remarks a senior police officer. "Our own informers fear coming out to haats and bazaars since they fear they would inadvertently get picked up and tortured by the police."
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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1576518.ece
Probe into claims of mounting death toll in Dantewada
Aman SethiA local newspaper has claimed that six Adivasis died of starvation at Morpalli village in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, where the security forces allegedly burnt 34 homes and granaries, sexually assaulted two women and killed one man on March 11.
Last week, The Hindu reported the allegations that the security forces had torched about 300 homes and granaries, sexually assaulted three women and killed at least three men (with two missing) in a five-day anti-Maoist operation in the villages of Morpalli, Timapuram and Tarmetla, prompting Collector R. Prasana to constitute a committee of inquiry and to dispatch emergency rations to the stricken villages.
Sources said the issue escalated into a full-blown confrontation between the district administration and the police, with armed special police officers hindering distribution of rations to the villages and cutting off all access to the area.
On Saturday, social activist Swami Agnivesh attempted to deliver rations, clothes and blankets at Tarmetla but was beaten back by a hostile crowd of stone-throwers and the rations were seized.
At a press conference on Sunday, he claimed that attacks were orchestrated by the police.
Late Saturday night, the government transferred Senior Superintendent of Police S.R.P. Kalluri, accused of organising the botched security operation, and Mr. Prasana, who ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Medical team to be sent
On Sunday, the Navbharat carried a report on its front page, claiming that four men and two women had died of starvation at Morpalli in the last two days. According to the report, the bodies have been cremated.
"A medical team shall be dispatched tomorrow [Monday] morning to ascertain the facts," said Mr. Prasana, who will continue in the post until his replacement, O.P. Chaudhury, arrives in Dantewada.
In the meantime, Ramanna, a spokesperson for the South Bastar Divisional Committee Commander of the CPI (Maoist), claimed that Maoists had been providing rice, grain and relief materials to Morpalli and Tarmetla.
"We are giving the villagers what little we can," said the spokesperson.
He was unaware of the starvation deaths at Morpalli and said he would look into the issue.
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