Hyderabad: Taking a serious view after finding prima facie that 67 Adivasis in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district were illegally confined, the Telangana High Court on Saturday directed the government to produce the 16 heads of the tribal families who were confined before it by Sunday evening.
Acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan was dealing with a house motion petition at his residence filed by the Civil Liberties Committee (Telangana) which sought a direction to the authorities to produce the families before the court and punish erring officers for illegally confining the tribals.
Justice Chauhan directed forest officials to bring the detenues to Hyderabad in air-conditioned tourism or similar buses by 5 pm.
He asked Professors Jaidhir Thirumal Rao and Manoja to make it convenient to assist the court by translating the Adivasis’ statements regarding their confinement and to know the facilities provided by the forest officials.
In the petition, Mr Gaddam Laxman, president of the CLC (TS), submitted that the 67 tribals had been illegally detained by forest and police authorities since June 12 after forcibly dispossessing them from Kola-mgondi in Khagaznagar mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
Mr V. Raghunath, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the authorities were trying to dispossess the detenues from the forest dwelling with a view to deporting them to Maharashtra against their will. He brought to the notice of the court that the detenues were kept at the Vempally timber depot in the forest.
Junior counsel for the government Manoj explained that the tribal families had taken shelter in timber depot on their own and the officials had arranged facilities, including rehabilitation of providing houses and land.
The court formed the prima facie opinion that the tribals were dispossessed from the dwelling area where they had stayed for years and enquired with the officials as to why they had dislocated them before providing them rehabilitation. “You could have put them in hotels instead of putting them in a timber depot till you provided the facilities,” the court told the forest officials.
