Chhattisgarh: Congress demands HC judge monitored probe in Bijapur encounter
State Congress chief Deepak Baij, addressing a press conference in Raipur, said the villagers levelled serious allegations on police in connection with the encounter, and therefore, it requires a high-level probe
Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Congress on Saturday demanded a high court judge-monitored judicial probe into the encounter of 12 alleged Maoists killed by the security forces on May 10 in Bijapur.
State Congress chief Deepak Baij, addressing a press conference in Raipur, said the villagers levelled serious allegations on police in connection with the encounter, and therefore, it requires a high-level probe.
On May 10, the state police claimed that they killed 12 Naxalites in a forest near Pidia village under Gangaloor police station limits in Bijapur district in an encounter during an anti-Naxalite operation.
Police also identified the dead Naxalites and claimed that they all carried cash rewards.
A day after the killings, local villagers, family members of the deceased and activists accused the police of staging a fake encounter and those killed were not Maoists, a charge rejected by the police.
On May 13, the Congress constituted a fact-finding team headed by its former MLA Santram Netam to probe the encounter which visited the village on May 16.
“Family members of the killed people told our fact-finding team that of the 12 killed, Budhu Oyam of Mallepalli village and Kallu Punem of Palnar village were active ‘Sangham’ members of the Maoists while remaining others Lakhe Kujam, Unda Chhotu, Ursa Chhotu, Sukku Tati, Chaitu Kunjam, Sunita Kujam, Jago Barsi, natives f Ittawar village and Sannu Avalam, Bhima Oyam, Dula Tamo, residents of Pidia were not Maoists,” Baij said.
Kunjam Gulli, Lekha Devi, Kunjam Jila, and Kunjam Badru, who hail from Ittawar village and Poyam Nandu of Pidia village, who were injured in the shootout were also not linked with the Maoists, Baij added.
“According to villagers, police opened fire on villagers on May 10 morning at 6am when they had gone to pluck tendu leaves in the forest. The allegations levelled by the villagers against the police are very serious and sensitive. Considering the seriousness of the allegations, it is necessary that a high-level impartial investigation should be conducted into this matter,” Baij said.
The Congress Party demands that the encounter be investigated under the supervision of a sitting high court judge, he added.
Earlier this week, a team of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) visited the village and claimed in its report that the villagers “clearly stated that it was by no means an encounter” as claimed by the police but a clear case of extra-judicial killings by the security forces.
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