By Sujeet Kumar, IANS,
Raipur: The arrest of two tribals, Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi, in Chhattisgarh for allegedly acting as Maoist conduits raises the larger question: Were they really Maoist activists or paying the price for raising their voice against rights abuses by security forces?
While activist-cum-journalist Kodopi, 25, was arrested in September, Soni Sori, 36, a tribal teacher and mother of three, was arrested in October. Both belong to India’s worst Maoist-affected district of Dantewada and are in jail for allegedly receiving money on behalf of Maoists from a corporate house.
According to police, Kodopi was caught red-handed at a weekly market in Dantewada Sep 9 while he was receiving Rs.1.5 million from a contractor. As per police theory, the money was provided by Essar Company as protection money and Sori too was present at the spot but escaped.
Sori was nabbed in Delhi Oct 4 and Chhattisgarh Police brought her to the state on transit remand.
However, not all believe the police theory.
“The police role is under serious question in the arrest of Sori and Kodopi because they were gunning for them for a long time as they were vocal against police excesses in Dantewada,” Rajendra K. Sail, former state president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), told IANS.
He said the police were gunning for the two much before the Essar protection money issue erupted. He said Kodopi was declared the mastermind behind the attack on a Congress leader’s house in Dantewada last year even as he was in Delhi, pursuing a course in journalism.
A total of four people were arrested in the alleged Essar pay-off case. The arrested include Essar general manager D.V.C.S. Verma, who is posted in Dantewada.
Though the judicial custody of all four is scheduled to end Dec 26, in all probability their remand would get extended again.
“Police are biased against them. If it was not the case, then why was Sori tortured during police custody repeatedly. An independent medical report submitted to the Supreme Court has confirmed that some foreign objects were inserted in her private parts while she was in custody,” Sail said.
In October, Sori sustained serious injuries on her back and a leg in Dantewada while in police custody. She had to be admitted in a hospital in Raipur where she had gone on a hunger strike, alleging police were treating her like a hardcore criminal and had chained her.
Last week, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar assured the state assembly that the state government would not spare anyone and would ensure the toughest punishment to those who channelised Essar’s money to Maoists.
He rejected reports that the government had slowed down investigation in the case in a bid to defend Essar.
“The state government has constituted a SIT (special investigation team) to speed up the alleged pay off probe case and get to the bottom of the issue,” Kanwar said but refused to comment when Congress sought his statement on why the case was handed over to SIT when Dantewada police was doing excellent work.
The SIT was formed over two months back but is yet to formally begin investigation.
Speaking to IANS on the condition of anonymity, a Dantewada police officer said the police were more interested in “settling the enmity with Kodopi and Sori than working on the larger issue of exposing the corporate-Maoist nexus in the Bastar region”.
In the entire interiors of the 40,000 sq km conflict zone of Bastar, the “tribals are subjected to extreme human rights abuses since late 1980s. Maoists have given them the option to either join their ranks or get killed. The police also either like tribal civilians act as informers or meet the same fate as of Sori and Kodopi”, he said.
(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])