By IANS,
Raipur : Tribals in a village in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district have alleged that security forces burnt their huts, stole money and sexually assaulted women during anti-Maoist operations, but state police Wednesday dismissed the reports as “Maoist-propaganda”.
Reports quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers along with Koya commandos, a unit of local tribals fighting the Maoists, went on a rampage close to Tarmetla village where the outlawed rebels had slaughtered 76 state troopers in April last year in their most audacious attack till date.
The villagers allege that under the grab of searching for Maoists and their sympathisers, the troopers assaulted women, killed livestock and burnt nearly 200 houses over three-four days. Many were allegedly illegally detained and some are still unaccounted for.
However, Dantewada police chief S.R.P. Kalluri strongly rejected the charges.
“It’s all Maoist-propaganda, nothing happened there. I have not received any compliant of police brutalities that you are talking about,” Kalluri told IANS over phone from Dantewada town.
Tarmetla is about 500 km from the state capital Raipur.
Information is hard to come by from the area, which is thickly forested and inaccessible. Reports said that the police have virtually cordoned off the area refusing to let any ‘outsider’ in the region.
Dantewada district collector R. Prasanna told IANS, “I have not received complaint of any police brutalities but will order a probe to verify the complaints that have appeared in media referring some villagers.
“Administration will pay compensation to the victims if reports of burning of houses and other complaints are found true,” he added.