After seven and a half years of an alleged encounter in the State of Chattisgarh’s Bastar region between the security forces and alleged Maoist, a court of inquiry has concluded. The alleged encounter is said to have killed seventeen villagers, including seven minors and six security personnel and ten villagers were left injured after the violent roundabout. The encounter was carried out despite no evidence on record to suggest that the killed or injured in the exchange were Maoists. The flip side of the story suggests that they were not Maoists, and the police knew about the same before engaging with them. A single-member inquiry commission was directed in the said case with a retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh high court, Justice V.K. Agarwal. In his report, he has stated that there is no satisfactory evidence in this regard to suggest that those who were killed and injured in the incident were Naxals. It has also stated that the claim which is being resorted to by the security forces that they fired in response to the villagers does not stand the test of scrutiny.
As per the report, there was no ‘exchange’ of firing. Instead, it was unilateral and was conducted only personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force [CRPF] and the state police cadre. It is a 76-page report, where the 146th paragraph states that
“The conduct of Deputy Inspector General, S. Elango as well as Deputy Commander Manish Bamola [who were leading the said operation] of not firing a single bullet shot during the said incident, as stated in their own admission, clearly indicated that there was no firing by the members of the meeting; because had there been any firing from the people present at the meeting both the above senior officers would have certainly fired in retaliation and exercise of self-defence,”
As per the version of events that took place that day in Bastar, the security forces had to kill the Maoist in a ‘fierce gunfight’ in the dense jungles of Bastar, Chattisgarh. The events are recorded on the intervening night of June 28 and 29, 2012. Apart from the many villagers who were killed in the untoward incident, two of ten villagers who were injured named Madkam Soma and Kaka Chianti were arrested from the hospital itself, proving that Maoists were involved in the said incident. A local court acquited both of them in Bastar’s Jagdalpur last year.
The state government then in power- Bhartiya Janta Party as well as the Central Government- Indian National Congress projected the alleged encounter as a major success by both the parties. The then Union home minister P. Chidambaram went on to remark on it as one of the “biggest offensives against Maoists,” in which the security personnel has managed to neutralize three crucial leaders of the Maoist movement, namely Somulu, Nagesh and Mahesh.
The alternative narrative of the locals suggests that the ones who were killed in the alleged encounter were not Maoists and that the incident was nothing but an unprovoked excessive and unilateral incident of firing on the part of the security forces. Only after a day of the said incident, a fact-finding team of the state Congress went on to examine and concluded that the encounter seemed to be fake. After that, hue and cry were calling for an independent investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] in the said matter. When on further pressing investigation in the case was probed, the then Union home minister P. Chidambaram has to apologize when it was established that those were killed not Maoists but indeed ordinary village men.
His statement post the ascertainment read:
“If any innocent person has been killed, I am deeply sorry. If any girl or boy or man or woman not involved with the Maoists at all has been killed, I can only be deeply sorry. I share (Union tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra) Deo’s sense of sadness and anguish at the loss of lives.”
The state government had initially shown a reluctance to order a probe in the said matter. The then chief minister Raman Singh, leading a BJP government in Chhattisgarh state had to eventually order a judicial inquiry which was spearheaded by Justice Agrawal on July 11, 2012, after pressure began to mount. The findings of the report in a manner proved that the encounter was fake, which ended up in taking away the lives of many people and thus began demands of punishing the said security personnel. Relative of a villager who was killed in the firing told to The Wire
“ If we are still ruled by the values of the constitution, then those responsible for killing innocent people should be punished.”
Advocate Sudha Bhardwaj had a crucial role to play in the campaigning for an inquiry into the said matter, enabling everyone to reach a logical conclusion. Bhardwaj, who was also amongst the some who were subsequently arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and is now being lodged in Pune jail on charges of being a ‘Maoist sympathizer’. Her role in solving the case of alleged encounter proved to be instrumental in aiding the villagers concerning the legal proceedings before the commission like submitting the villagers’ affidavits.
No compensation or punishment recommended by the report:
It was said to be the first incident where a government-instituted inquiry has led to a conclusion in the report in favour of the villagers and the victims. The report was anticipated to have an impact over other cases, such as the Tadmetla incident of 2011 and the Edesmeta Encounter of 2013. However, despite such clear findings in the inquiry, there is a lack of recommendations to ensure justice for the family of the victims, something the report could not handle. The villagers demanded that the commission should have recommended some relief for the family of the victims, monetary and employment-based. It also urged that the commission should pronounce punishment to those guilty of killing innocent people in Bastar, Chhattisgarh.
It is true that the recommendations of the commission did not include any provision to compensate the villagers who lost their near and dear ones, in indiscriminate and directionless firing, resulting in the killing of 17 villagers. The recommendations have restricted themselves to better training of security forces, along with the provision of improved gadgets, means of communication, intelligence and for enhancing the relationship between the security personnel and the local village population. The absence of any recommendation to punish the involved security personnel comes despite that there the complainants in writing submitted before the commission praying for the registration of a fresh FIR against all the CRPF and police personnel who were involved in the indiscriminate firing. The prayer was to seek compensation of Rs. 15 lakh to the kin of the deceased villagers in the said fake encounter and Rs. 10 lakh each to the injured villagers. As per the statements of the complainants,
“The meagre amount of Rs 2,00,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively, already provided are not enough to compensate for the loss of life and injury in the unfortunate incident.”
Advocate Isha Khandelwal, involved with representing the claims of the complainants, noted the report though acknowledges that the narrative put forth by the villagers were, in fact, the truth from the very first day, did not provide any clarity on what the state should do ‘so that the cycle of impunity ends.’ She demanded the state government to register an FIR and make sure that this is followed by a fair investigation against the said responsible officers, holding them accountable and suspended. She demanded accountability, given the fact that the report clearly establishes a case of fake encounter. She highlights that the said incident labelled as ‘encounter’ has led to the harassment and killing of many Adivasi and was carried out in the name of ‘combating Maoists’.
On the leak of the report, the former chief minister Raman Singh has noted that this is a breach of privilege of the Chhattisgarh assembly. He said
“This amounts to the contempt of the Vidhan Sabha. The government had committed a major crime as the judicial commission report was leaked to the media particularly when the Assembly session was on,”
After the contents of the report were disclosed, there were “tremors within the Chattisgarh government”, as reported by Indian Express. According to the information given by the newspaper, though the contents of the report were discussed, ‘some members of the Cabinet were in marked discomfort’.
“The report has been with the government for over a month, and the Vidhan Sabha session is on. So why the delay in the Cabinet officially taking it up? Any government needs time to peruse a report, especially one as important as this, but it could have been worse if the Cabinet was misled,” a Cabinet member was quoted by Express as having said. As per the sources of the newspapers, the report was mentioned on the cabinet meeting held on November 15. However, when it was brought up in the cabinet meeting, it was clarified that the story does not put accountability on anyone and thus was of little to no purpose. This is being opposed by the minister of the Bastar region, like Kawasi Lkahma.
Objections were also raised by the health minister T.S. Singhdeo who said that it was the Congress, under the late Nand Kumar Patel, who had managed to raise the issue of the tribals being innocent, and had demanded a judicial inquiry into the said matter which could have otherwise be passed off as an ‘encounter of the Maoist’. The commission report is likely to be tabled in the state assembly in the coming week.