[On October 1st, last year, in the Gompad village in the Dantewada district 9 persons including a teen-aged girl are reportedly killed by the state security forces together with the Salwa Judum brigade, the private vigilante group propped up be the state.
What follows here provides us a peek into the brazen efforts of the state to hush all that up. Regardless of the fact that the Supreme Court is seized of the matter, rather with a degree of desperation triggered by that.] I/II. http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article81193.ece Key witness in Adivasi killings brought to AIIMSManisha Jha [image: THE PICTURE THEY DELETED: Sodi Sambho at AIIMS on Friday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma] The Hindu THE PICTURE THEY DELETED: Sodi Sambho at AIIMS on Friday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma Room No. 2016 at the New Private Ward of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here is playing host to a very special patient. Sodi Sambho, who was brought to the Institute from Gompad village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh five days ago, is set to undergo surgery for a bullet wound in her leg this Saturday. But what makes her special is that she is a key witness in a petition filed in the Supreme Court which alleges that security forces fired upon and killed nine Adivasis in a “sanitisation operation” in her village this past October 1. After she was detained on her way to Delhi, the Supreme Court directed the Chhattisgarh police not to prevent her from coming to the Capital for treatment. Human rights activists and her lawyer, Colin Gonsalves, have expressed concern over the matter and alleged that strict police surveillance is being maintained over her movement and that she is being pressurised to change her statement. They allege she is under de facto police custody or surveillance and is not free to meet activists or journalists. An attempt by this reporter to interact with her in her ward on Friday was thwarted by three men who refused to identify themselves and claimed to be her “well-wishers”. One of them said he was a fellow-Adivasi from her village and had accompanied her to Delhi for her treatment. The second man, a non-Adivasi, claimed to be a “doctor” from outside Delhi but subsequently contradicted himself saying he was not a medical practitioner. He said he already knew the Adivasi accompanying Ms. Sambho and decided to offer whatever help he could. The third non-Adivasi man, however, did not reveal anything about himself. Tall and well-built, he had a mop of close-cropped hair. Though the two non-Adivasi men lacked any legal or professional authority to interfere in the work of a journalist, they denied *The Hindu* permission to directly speak with Ms. Sambho on the ground that she only understood Gondi. And one of them pounced on the photographer who was accompanying this reporter when he began clicking photographs. One of the “well-wishers” threatened to “inform the police” and file a legal complaint if Ms. Sambho’s picture, or a story about her, was published. He then forced the photographer to hand over the camera while demanding to see the photo identity cards. In the meantime, the third unidentified man who had just entered the room turned aggressive, took away the camera and deleted the pictures with practised ease. (As it turned out later, the photographer was able to retrieve and resurrect the pictures with the help of a special software embedded in the camera). After several attempts, the head “well-wisher” agreed to let this reporter question the other Adivasi, who he said was the only person who could speak Hindi and Gondi. However, instead of conveying the queries to Ms. Sambho, he and the other unidentified man insisted on answering them directly without asking her. The Adivasi man stated that they had the full support of the police and the hospital administration in Ms. Sambho’s treatment. He denied any police personnel had accompanied her to Delhi or were monitoring her movement to pressurise her. “The Maoists were behind the attack in which Sambho was injured,” he claimed. As the “interview” proceeded, one of the “well-wishers” lost his temper, blaming this reporter for “disturbing the patient before her surgery”. For the record, however, the AIIMS doctors themselves never objected to *The Hindu’s* attempt to meet Ms. Sambho. II. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2010011756401000.htm&date=2010/01/17/&prd=th&; *In Chhattisgarh, jail is the cost of filing a public interest litigation plea* Aman Sethi *Police detain three witnesses to killings in Gompad village, ban journalists from site* ------------------------------ * Police decline comment on veracity of claims made in petition filed by Sodi Sambho and others There is concern that the facts surrounding the Gompad killings might never be known * ------------------------------ Konta: The mystery surrounding the killing of nine Adivasis in Gompad village in Dantewada district in October last year is deepening, with the Chhattisgarh police detaining three more witnesses to the incident and restricting all access to the area on the pretext of Operation Green Hunt. Operation Green Hunt is a catch-all phrase, used by the police and media alike, for all major anti-naxal offensives since July 2009. Total control As previously reported by *The Hindu*, the Chhattisgarh police have assumed total control over the movements of Sodi Sambho – one of several witnesses in a Supreme Court petition that alleges that the 9 civilians were killed by the security forces. On Friday, armed policemen and Special Police Officers (SPO) lined the length of the highway from Dantewada town to Konta, the block headquarters closest to Gompad, stopping vehicles and questioning commuters. Travelling with local journalists Anil Mishra of Nayi Duniya and Yashwant Yadav of Navbharat, this correspondent was repeatedly detained along the route and told that Gompad village was out of bounds as a major anti-naxal operation was underway. Non-journalists were, however, let through. Concerned that we might enter the village from Andhra Pradesh, we were detained by SPOs for about 45 minutes on the Chhattisgarh-A.P. border and allowed to proceed only after the intervention of Deputy Inspector-General, Dantewada, S.R.P. Kalluri. At present, the police have refused to comment on the veracity of the claims made in the Supreme Court petition filed by Sodi and others. “The Superintendent of Police of Dantewada has been told to initiate an enquiry into the Gompad incident,” said T.J. Longkumer, Inspector-General Police, Bastar. However, witnesses to the killings insisted in interviews to *The Hind* *u* that the police were involved in the early morning ‘sanitisation operation’ and killed nine villagers (seven from Gompad and two from nearby villages), including three women and a 12-year-old girl. “The police also cut off the fingers of a two-year-old infant,” said one witness speaking on condition of anonymity fearing police retribution. “The police stabbed Madavi Venka [a victim] and then shot him fatally,” said another witness, “All those killed were innocent villagers with no involvement with the naxals.” The witnesses were interviewed, via a translator, at a weekly bazaar at Adralpalli on the Andhra Pradesh side of the border between the two States. Due to the police cordon around Gompad village, witness reports could not be verified independently. The villagers also claimed that the police have detained Soyam Rama, Soyam Dulla and Kattam Dulla, three witnesses whose testimonies could prove crucial when the case comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court. “All three men have been held at the police station at Konta for the last one week,” said a Gompad villager. The Adivasis were picked up by the police in the first week of January when they came to Dantewada town for a public airing of grievances, the villagers said, an assertion DIG Kalluri contests. “We have never detained these three men,” he said. “They have never been taken into police custody.” However, police sources speaking to *The Hindu* on background confirmed that the three men were indeed held “for questioning” at the Konta police station till January 14 but could not confirm their current location. At present, their whereabouts are unknown. Yet to be addressed Police control over witnesses and restrictions on the movement of the press have raised concerns that the facts surrounding the Gompad killings might never be known. In another PIL petition pending before the Supreme Court for the past three years, allegations of large-scale killing of Adivasis and arson by the Salwa Judum and security forces have yet to be addressed. <http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article81403.ece> -- Peace Is Doable--
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