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From: "కార్తీక్ నవయాన్" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 8:56 PM
Subject: [New post] Report on Recent Fake Encounters in Koraput, Malkangiri
Districts of South Odissa
To: [email protected]
Karthik Navayan posted: "A five-member team of human rights activists
and concerned citizens enquired into three recent cases of alleged
crossfire between the police and Maoists in the districts of Koraput and
Malkangiri in South Odissa. The three alleged encounters resulted in
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<http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/author/karthiknavayan/> Report on
Recent Fake Encounters in Koraput, Malkangiri Districts of South
Odissa<http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/report-on-recent-fake-encounters-in-koraput-malkangiri-districts-of-south-odissa/>
by
Karthik Navayan <http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/author/karthiknavayan/>
A five-member team of human rights activists and concerned citizens
enquired into three recent cases of alleged crossfire between the police
and Maoists in the districts of Koraput and Malkangiri in South Odissa. The
three alleged encounters resulted in all in the death of 15 persons, all
stated to be Maoists by the police. There were no casualties or injuries on
the side of the police. The fact-finding team visited the villages and
surrounding areas of Litiput village in Gunnepada panchayat of Lamtaput
block, Koraput district; Chiliba village in Balel panchayat, also of
Lamtaput block in Koraput district and Silakota in Bapanpalli panchayat of
Podia block in Malkangiri district over two days on November 9 and 10, 2013
and spoke to a cross-section of people. The following is a brief report of
the findings. A more detailed report will follow in due course.
Contrary to the official police and establishment version, all three
purported exchanges of fire did not take place. It is the fact-finding
teams’ view that in all three cases, the police, which consisted of the
Border Security Force (BSF), Special Operations Group (SOG) and District
Voluntary Force (DVF) personnel, opened unilateral fire on the now deceased
resulting in the deaths. We will elucidate below each of the three
incidents.
Killing of An Adivasi farmer at Litiput
On the night of October 29, Gangadhar Kirsani (about 30), an adivasi farmer
of the Gadaba tribe left home at Litiput after dinner along with his
relative and close friend Samara Challan to watch over their ragi fields
till morning. Their fields are located close to each other. This was their
daily routine since about three weeks as it was harvest time and the crop
was prone to devastation by monkeys, deer and wild boar. The two managed to
get hold of a crab in the rivulet enroute their fields which they hoped to
cook and eat while they stayed up the night to keep the wild animals at
bay. They were also listening to music on their mobile and with the help of
a torch were heading to their ragi fields which was less than half a km
from the village. It was a little past 8 pm.
Their fields were only a furlong away when out of the blue and without any
warning there was firing from towards the right. The burst hit Gangadhar
who was walking in front. According to Samara who was just a few feet
behind him, the firing was from a fairly short distance. He was lucky to
escape the burst because there were some bushes between him and the BSF men
who unleashed the firing.
A terrified Samara dropped to the ground and then managed to somehow run
back to the village and inform others. By the time the villagers rushed to
the spot in less than 15 minutes, Gangadhar was alive and lying at about 15
feet where he was initially hit. He was in all likelihood dragged or lifted
there by the BSF personnel who then left.
The villagers picked up Gangadhar and brought him several metres away to
the semi-pucca road from where they were making efforts to arrange a
vehicle to take him to a hospital. He was still conscious and moaning
saying “I will not survive, they have killed me”. His relatives noticed
about four bullet injuries on him one of which had pierced his stomach and
exited. “His intestines had come out and there was a lot of blood”, they
told the fact-finding team. Gangadhar kept asking his aunt Dohona Kirsani
repeatedly for water. He died soon after even before a vehicle could be
brought to take him to a hospital. He passed away about 45 minutes after
being shot.
The villagers then informed the local police, in this case the Machkund PS
but there was no response from the police. The next morning (October 30),
over a hundred villagers from Littiput as well as several other villages in
the area went to the Machkund PS. They submitted a written complaint to the
Inspector Incharge (IIC) Mr Routray stating that Gangadhar, an innocent
farmer with no links at all to the Maoists was killed by the BSF. They
waited till about 2 pm but the police only kept stalling saying “we will
come over soon”. Angry villagers then shook up the grills at the police
station and even broke a table. The police finally went at about 5 pm and
shifted Gangadhar’s body to the district headquarters. A post-mortem was
conducted at the Koraput hospital and the body was handed over to
Gangadhar’s relatives. He was cremated the next day on October 31.
Gangadhar, who raised millets and rice in about 4 acres of land, is
survived by his wife Malathi and 2 young sons.
The villagers told the fact-finding team that the IIC handed over Rs 15,000
at Machkund to Gangadhar’s cousin Jaggu Kirsani and Rs 35,000 in cash at
Koraput the next day before the body was handed over. Several policemen
also told them: “a wrong has been committed”. The Lamtaput BDO also handed
over a cheque of Rs 20,000 to Gangadhar’s family.
While these are the plain facts of the case, the police put out the
outlandish version that Gangadhar was killed during a counter-insurgency
operation by the BSF. The DIG South-West Range S Dev Dutta Singh stated
that: “Around 30 BSF men spotted 50 to 60 Maoists near Litiput around 9 pm.
No sooner the Maoists saw the BSF men, they started firing and our men
retaliated. The exchange of fire continued for 20 minutes. The rebels fired
around 30 rounds. Gangadhar was killed in the gun-battle.” The DIG went on
to add that whether the deceased was with the Maoists or caught in the
cross-fire was under investigation and “if Gangadhar is found to be
innocent then he will be compensated as per the prevailing government
norms.”
The fact-finding team as no hesitation in stating that Gangadhar, an
adivasi farmer, was shot dead by BSF personnel on the night of October 29
near his village of Littiput when he was going to keep watch over his
fields along with Samara Challan. There was no exchange of fire with the
Maoists as the police claim. This is a clear case of a blatant murder
committed by the BSF.
Having opened fire without any provocation and killing an unarmed civilian,
the police tried to put out the usual falsehood of an exchange of fire with
the Maoists to explain away a case of murder. They cannot simply wash their
hands off in this manner. The police cannot manufacture the story of an
encounter and then close the case. The law and the Constitution dictate
that in every case of an alleged encounter resulting in death the police
personnel who have participated in the said encounter must be charged with
the offence of having committed murder and prosecuted. In this case, the
BSF personnel who participated in the said “counter-insurgency operation”
and opened fire must be charged with appropriate sections of the law and
proceeded against. It is not up to the DIG or any other police or
paramilitary officer to decide upon the innocence or otherwise of
Gangadhar. That is simply not their brief. It is only after registering of
a case and proper investigation of the crime that a court will decide upon
the matter.
Chiliba
On August 24 this year, the Malkangiri and Koraput police claimed that a
dreaded Maoist leader Madhav alias G Ramulu who carried a Rs 4 lakh reward
was killed in an encounter with security forces the day before (August 23).
The police claimed that following a tip-off, a joint team of the Special
Operations Group (SOG) and police from Malkangiri and Koraput districts
were undertaking combing operations in the forest near Chiliba in Lamtaput
block of Koraput district when they came upon a Maoist camp. The police
then announced to the ultras that they were surrounded and they had better
surrender but the Maoists fired at them upon which the police retaliated in
self-defence. A fierce gun-battle ensued at the end of which Ramulu, a
member of the Maoist Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee was
killed. The police also stated that four other ultras managed to escape and
they were on the lookout for them. Putting out this version, the Malkangiri
SP Akhileswar Singh stated that Ramulu was a top Naxalite who was involved
in many incidents of murder, extortion and landmine blasts.
The police version about the death is pure concoction. Ramulu, who was
indeed a Maoist underground functionary, had come alone to Chiliba village,
in Balel panchayat, on August 22. He spent the night in a farmer’s shed
which is used to store grain. The police appear to have had precise
information about his whereabouts. Towards noon on August 23, two policeman
went into the shed and shot him dead. Soon after, the body was taken to
Koraput via Lamtaput in a van that was earlier parked by the police at some
distance from the village. The story of a fierce encounter resulting in the
death of a top Maoist was then dished out for public consumption.
It is not our case that Ramulu was uninvolved in violence and killing of
civilians and police personnel. He may well have been, but that in no way
gives the police the right to kill him. The point is that the police did
have the option of easily taking him into custody but they did not exercise
that. They chose instead to kill him in a cold-blooded manner. Having done
so, they took recourse to the fiction of “exchange of fire resulting in the
death of a dreaded Maoist”.
During our fact-finding, we also heard the view from several people
including journalists reporting from the area, both in Koraput and
Malkangiri districts, that Ramulu was seeking to surrender to the
government. We were told that he was actually in the process of working out
the logistics of giving himself up when he was liquidated by the police.
Mass Killings of Maoists at Silakota
This was by far the biggest “encounter” in which 13 persons were gunned
down by the SOG and District Voluntary Force (DVF) in a pre-dawn raid on
September 14, 2013. Silakota is a village located deep in the reserve
forest range by that name. It falls in Bapanpalli panchayat of Podia block
in Malkangiri village. The area is about 10 km from the Sabari river with
Sukma district of Chattisgarh on the other side.
Maoist armed squad members, said to belong to the Kalimela dalam and
numbering about 20, came and set up camp about three furlongs away from
Silakota village on the afternoon of September 13. The place they chose was
in a small clearing in fairly thick forest which is ranged on two sides by
hills. It is quite clear that the police had information about their
presence and a raid was decided upon.
A joint party of the SOG and DVF went on foot to the area in the dead of
night. At about 4 am on September 14, they surrounded the camp from three
sides and without any warning whatsoever unleashed fire. Thirteen persons
who were in all likelihood asleep, died while the others managed to escape
beyond the hills.
The bodies of only five of the 13 killed were identified over the next
couple of days and they were cremated in the presence of their families and
a magistrate. The other eight were unidentified and unclaimed and they were
also subsequently buried by the Malkangiri administration. While the five
identified were said to be members of the Kalimela armed squad and native
to Malkangiri district, it is also possible that among the remaining eight,
there could be some civilians and even combatants from other districts of
Odissa or even from other States like Andhra Pradesh or Chattisgarh. We are
not aware of the local administration making serious attempts to get their
identity known by at least publishing photographs in the media, among other
things.
Given the large number of deaths, the Silakota “encounter” was widely
publicized in the media. What is extremely objectionable is the manner in
which senior police officials literally gloated over the killings. The
Malkangiri SP Akhileswar Singh, who reportedly led the team that killed the
13 was quoted in the media as stating that: “There was no option of asking
them to surrender. Even if I had asked them, do you think they would have?
They would have shot back at me and we would have suffered casualties. It’s
jungle warfare.” “It was an operation based on precise information. We
reached the area by foot and took them out. The heavy downpour helped drown
the sound of our movements. Since it was raining, even their sentries had
taken shelter in the three tents that they had put up.”
These statements reveal an utter lack of respect for the law. An encounter
by definition means an exchange of fire. The SP’s bluster, in effect,
amounts to an admission that there was no such exchange of fire at
Silakota. The firing was unilateral and only from the side of the police.
It was therefore, clearly, a “fake encounter”. In the law, this amounts to
murder.
The Orissa DGP while stating that it was a major success in the police
drive against the Maoists stated: “This is a stern warning to the Maoists
of other States. They will face a similar fate if they enter Odissa.” He
then proceeded to even announce cash rewards to the SOG personnel who had
taken part in the killings. These are highly irresponsible statements and
actions.
Conclusion
In all the three incidents that we looked into, there was no exchange of
fire leading to the deaths of a total of 15 people as claimed by the
police. There was only unilateral and one-sided firing from the side of the
police and special forces like the SOG resulting in the deaths. The
assertion of the police that they were fired upon and they had to therefore
retaliate in self-defence is nothing but a plain falsehood. Affecting a
closure of the matter after making this assertion, and merely registering a
case under section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder) against the now
deceased, makes for a complete mockery of the law. Even the mandatory
magisterial enquiry into these killings by the administration is no
substitute for criminal prosecution of those who took part in these
killings.
What is immensely worrying is the level of militarisation in the Southern
region of Odissa. Over the past four years, there has been a big ratcheting
up of security operations in these parts. The number of BSF camps in
Malkangiri and Koraput districts has gone up and more and more of these
personnel are being pumped into the area. This is leading to immense injury
to adivasis resident in the forest and to an unacceptable violation of the
right to life and liberty. It is not our case that the Maoists do not
indulge in violence. The police are indeed endowed with the task of meeting
that violence as and when it occurs but they must do so in a manner that is
totally respectful of the law. They cannot go around violating the law and
indulging in extra-judicial killings and then closing the case after duly
invoking the convenient concoction of “retaliation in self-defence”.
The police are only as lawful or lawless as the government wants them to
be. It is our considered view that the government, both at the Centre and
in Odissa has fashioned a policy of seeking to physically wipe out the
Maoists. This is born out of a basic understanding that there is nothing to
that movement except violence and criminality. In other words, despite
official statements from time to time that the Maoist movement is not
merely a law and order issue but one having strong socio-economic
components, the attempt at the ground-level has always been to annihilate
it with the help of special forces. This ruthless policy must end, not
least because it results in extreme brutalisation of civilian
non-combatants. The government must implement comprehensive policies that
seriously and sincerely address issues of social and economic deprivation
in the 5th Scheduled areas.
The fact-finding team’s demands:
1. A case of homicide under 302 IPC must be booked against all police and
special force personnel who participated in the killings at Litiput,
Chiliba and the Silakota forest. The investigation into these killings must
be handed over to the CBI or a criminal investigation team under the aegis
of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
2. We urge the Odissa State Human Rights Commission to take cognizance of
the killing of Gangadhar Kirsani of Litiput village and issue appropriate
orders. His family must be paid a compensation of not less that Rs 10 lakh.
The administration must also ensure that his wife Malathi is given a
government job without further delay.
3. The government must not ride roughshod over protective legislation meant
for adivasis. The hard won rights of the adivasis must be fully respected
and honoured and PESA, FRA and other statutes must be implemented in letter
and spirit. Systematic policy interventions must be made to ameliorate the
material conditions of the adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers
in the 5th Scheduled areas.
4. The Maoist movement must be viewed as and addressed as a political
movement and not as a mere outbreak of criminality. It must be acknowledged
that this movement, though it does employ violence to further its goals, is
one that has deep roots in material deprivation, social oppression and lack
of freedom.
5. Government must stop its ongoing policy to decimate the Maoists
militarily. Serious efforts must be made by both the Government and the
Maoists to initiate steps that would lead up to an unconditional dialogue.
Members of the fact-finding team:
Nihar Das of Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangatan (GASS), Orissa.
VS Krishna and N Amar of the Human Rights Forum (Andhra Pradesh).
Deba Ranjan, writer, social activist and film-maker.
Debi Prasanna, social activist.
*Karthik Navayan
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