Hyderabad: The Chhattisgarh police under the leadership of former Bastar Inspector General of Police, Kalluri Shivaram Prasad (who was asked to proceed on long leave on Thursday), has been accused of registering false FIRs and cases against lawyers, journalists and activists working in the Maoist sensitive area.
There have been complaints of harassment, false charges of murder and dealing in demonetised currency notes, and physical attacks on persons who have been looking into or reporting or researching human rights violations by Chhattisgarh police.
Delhi University’s Prof. Nandini Sundar said: “A fake FIR has been booked against me and five others by the orders of Mr Prasad, stating we have resorted to murder, Arms Act violation and rioting. I have been fighting a case in the Supreme Court against Salwa Judum (the state-sponsored vigilante group) since 2007 and on the basis of my petition in 2011, the Supreme Court banned Salwa Judum. Later we filed for contempt and a CBI inquiry was ordered and a chargesheet filed in October 2016 against police officials. In a press conference, Mr Prasad said that he had directed the operations that resulted in burning of houses and attacks.”
On November 17, 2016, the NHRC took suo motu cognisance of the protests against Mr Prasad for registering a murder case against Prof. Sundar and others. Senior officials were called to answer before the commission, which led to the IG proceeding on long leave.
The NHRC said, “It has been alleged that these professors visited Bas-tar in May 2016, when the murder (of which they had been accused) took place in November 2016. There is no apparent connection between the murder and the visit of these human rights activists and, therefore, it has been alleged that they have been framed in mala fide manner by police to settle scores. The CBI found Mr Prasad responsible for the burning of homes. The commission on consideration of the whole situation prevailing in Chhattisgarh over more than a year, views the action of registration of FIR against Prof. Sundar and others was an act in line with earlier acts of hostility displayed by police. The commission asked Mr Prasad to appear before it twice but he failed to do so citing health reasons.”
Prof. Sundar said that seven people from Telangana, including lawyers, journalists and students, who were part of the fact-finding committee, were arrested.
Advocate Shalini Gera of Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression said that the police “hounded us and detained the landlord who rented us his house and forcibly evicted us from Jaga-dalpur. We have filed a petition in the Chhatt-isgarh High Court regarding the murder of a boy, leading to a second post-mortem.”
Mr Prasad has denied all these accusations. “As the head of the force I plan the operations, brief and train the men. The operations are led by IPS officers. We are under total watch including by the satellite. There is always serious safety threat till we get out of the place,”he said. Under these circumstances will police forces resort to rape? They are baseless allegations,” he said.
Official says he’s not on forced leave
Chhattisgarh inspector-general of police Kalluri Shivram Prasad, who proceeded on leave following a human rights controversy, said, “I have proceeded on medical leave on my own accord. I have read some articles that I was forcefully dispatched on leave which I beg to deny.”
He said, “The government has to accommodate conflicting interests and take care of diverse views in a healthy democracy. Though I personally believe that all the forces which threaten the internal security of our country should be uncompromisingly dealt with, as a public servant I respect and honour all decisions of the government.”
He said the Chhattis-garh government, especially Chief Minister Raman Singh, had “favoured me and my family for which we shall be ever grateful.” He wanted focus on “the future course of action to tackle Maoists as we are almost on the verge of winning this war.”
