June 28, 2012 ; Seventeen Tribal Villagers of Chhatisgarh massacred allegedly by security forces in

On the night of June 28 2012, in an alleged 'encounter' between security forces and tribals in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, 17 villagers died. The encounter took place at night in an open field between the three villages of Sarkeguda, Kotteguda and Rajpenta. The morning brought to light the blood-soaked bodies of young people lying on a sheet of tarpaulin. Of those killed, three were teenagers. The security forces incurred no casualties. Many villagers were injured. CRPF claimed that the a few security personnel too sustained injuries. An inquiry commission was instituted under retired high court judge VK Agarwal, which has completed the examinations and cross-examinations of villagers and several Central Reserve Police Force officers, including, S Ilango, the deputy inspector general of police who led one of the teams.

@Scroll.in has, in its post on the Web, reported and commented on the "encounter" on the basis of the testimonies of both villagers and key officers involved in the event, copies of which, it claims, are with it.

The following is the edited version of the report of @Scroll.in :

According to the testimonies of the villagers, on the night of June 28, in anticipation of the Beej Pandum festival, leaders and priests of the three neighbouring villages called for a meeting to discuss arrangements for celebrations. Around 60 to 70 people, including young boys and girls, attended the meeting in what they describe as a common open ground surrounded by the three villages.Villagers claim they were not using any lanterns for light during the meeting.

According to the @Scroll.in Report, all the villagers examined by the commission narrated a common sequence of events leading up to the firing. According to the villagers, around half-way through, they heard sounds of gunshots and claim they were being fired upon from all sides. “During the meeting, the police came and started firing from all directions, shouting ‘pakdo, firing karo (catch them and fire),” said Sarke Pulayya, a 22-year-old resident of Sarkeguda village, in his testimony to the inquiry commission. “We shouted that we were villagers, but they still did not stop.”

“I was at home, and from home itself I saw that the police were firing from all sides,” said Ritha Kaka, a 21-year-old resident of Kotteguda village, in her testimony. Kaka, whose house overlooks the ground where the firing occurred, said she was able to witness the incident from her open door. For a brief moment after the firing, she said the maidan lit up – possibly from the para bomb fired by the police for light. “I saw the police gathering the bodies. I saw the police beating the remaining villagers,” said Ritha.

Villagers who survived the firing claimed they had rushed indoors to take cover, and only came out in the morning, when they allegedly heard another round of gunshots. When the villagers finally stepped out of their homes, they saw the police taking away the body of a villager called Irpa Ramesh. “After the incident we went to the crime scene and we saw that medicines, clothes, cartridges were lying around and so was blood,” said Sarke Babloo, another Sarkeguda resident.

A group of villagers then met the local sarpanch and went to the nearby Basaguda police station to get some clarity on what had happened. A total of 17 villagers had died in the firing, including 15-year-old Kaka Rahul, 17-year-old Kaka Saraswati and 16-year-old Madkam Ramvilas. Two men were missing – Madkam Soma and Ritha Kaka’s brother, Senti Kaka. After hours at the police station, their families were told that the duo had been taken to a hospital in Raipur. They were later arrested and jailed in Dantewada on charges of being Naxalites – they are still under-trials in Dantewada jail, far away from their homes. It wasn’t until evening – and up to the next morning – that the police started handing over the bodies of the dead.

On the other hand, the officials of the CRPF deposed before the Commission that senior police officers decided to carry out a secret night operation from Basaguda to Silger after getting intelligence about Naxal activity in Silger. CRPF officials claimed they set off from Basaguda in batches, marching silently on foot on the forest road connecting one town to the other.The testimonies of the lower-ranked officials indicate that after marching for around 90 minutes, they heard sounds of gun fire and in self-defence, they began to fire back in the direction of the sounds. A few minutes into the firing, many of the personnel said they suffered injuries and were helped out of the area by their colleagues. The officials also claimed that on account of the dark night, they could not see who they were firing at.

Head constable Gyanendra Prakash, however, has claimed he was one of the 196 members of Ilango’s team.“It was dark in the jungle at that time…We fired in the direction from which we had been shot,” said Gyanendra Prakash in his testimony. “We did not see who we were firing upon. I don’t know who fired the first shot.”

“I don’t know that this incident took place between Sarkegauda and Kotteguda. I don’t remember that the place was like an open ground,” said Wahidul Islam, one of the officials in Ilango’s party. “I don’t know personally whether the dead were Naxals but that is what we were told later.”

Two other constables, however, told the inquiry commission that they heard Hindi swear words and exclamations of “Police, police, fire karo” before the shots began.

The @Scroll.in has noted that there are many Discrepancies in the testimonies of the CRPF personnel.

There were four teams of policemen involved in the operation, and in his testimony, DIG Ilango claimed he was leading a team of 43 members. DIG Ilango stated in his cross-examination that the incident took place in an “open area between two forest patches”, although he insists it was not in an open field in between the three villages. The firing began, he said, a few minutes after his party heard some movement and sounds that betrayed the presence of people in the vicinity. “As a matter of abundant precaution decided that we should change the route slightly to the north….after deviation and marching for about 5-6 minutes, we heard the sounds of gunfire,” said Ilango in his testimony. The @Scroll.in, in its reportage, comments that a number of lower-ranked officials, in their testimonies – constable Krishna Kumar Khatri, for instance, specifically stated on cross-examination that “it is wrong that we had turned left and walked six minutes just before firing”. Ilango also claimed that “it is not true that they [his troop] could not tell who was firing at them”. The DIG claimed he had no knowledge of the details of the names and ages of the people who were killed in the firing. As per the transcript of the cross-examination, the inquiry commission showed Ilango several photographs of the wounds on the bodies of the dead, but the DIG repeatedly claimed he had no explanations for how the victims could have got those wounds. This included the photograph of a victim whose bullet wounds clearly indicated that he was shot from the top at close range while kneeling.

@Scroll.in also notes that many of the constables allegedly injured in the firing admitted to numerous discrepancies between the hospital records and their previous testimonies about the nature of their wounds. Soon after the incident, for instance, Wahidul Islam claimed in a police statement that he was injured on the right side of his chest, but he later told the inquiry commission that he suffered wounds on his left torso and right elbow. Constable Arnav Ghosh’s hospital record notes an injury on his left leg, but he told the commission he was injured on his right toe.

Kaka and Soma - remain lodged in Dantevada Prison as under trial!

On the night of the firing, Kaka and Soma were taken by the police to a hospital in Raipur. But even as their families struggled to get them back, lawyers claim it was a whole month before the police actually arrested them. “They were charged with murder and for being Naxalites, but why did the police wait for a month?” said Shalini Gera, an advocate from the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group which is helping the villagers fight their case. “The truth is the police did not really have evidence to support their claims and needed time to buttress their case against the two men.” Madkam Soma and Senti Kaka are still in Dantewada prison as undertrial. Their bail application has been rejected and their case remains pending.

(Courtesy: @Scroll.in)