In red zone, its police-activists conflict

The pamphlet underlined that the Naxalites have no connection with Nandini Sundar - a DU professor and Archana Prasad, who teaches at JNU

Two days ago, the Bastar police recovered a pamphlet in the interior Kumbakoleng village reportedly drafted by the Naxalites. 

The pamphlet underlined that the Naxalites have no connection with Nandini Sundar, a professor in Delhi University, Archana Prasad, who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who have been booked by Bastar police for murder of a tribal villager in Sukma. The rebels claimed that they killed Somnath and those named in the First Information Report (FIR) have nothing to do with the case.

The police officials had been propagating that the rebels had issued the pamphlet in support of the activists that endorse their connection. But the experts have raised question over the authenticity of the pamphlet with an apprehension that it could be another stroke in the on-going conflict between activists and security forces, deployed to combat Left Wing Extremists.

“If it was a genuine communication from the Naxalites, they would have released it to the media and also an audio copy, as had been the practice,” an expert on the issue in Bastar said. The senior police officials did not respond to the call for their version on the issue and authenticity of the pamphlet.

The incident gave new twist to the development related to FIR lodged in connection with the murder of Shamnath Baghel, who was opposing Naxalites. The FIR had been challenged in the apex court and the matter would come up for hearing on November 15. 

“Based on a complaint, an FIR cannot be lodge,” leading Chhattisgarh High Court lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj said. The police said Somnath’s wife Vimla had given a written complaint and based on it the FIR was registered. In an interview to a news channel, Vimla had denied naming anyone in the complaint. Bhardwaj said the police should have probe and come out with evidences against the activists. 

The other activists whose names figured in the FIR included Vineet Tiwari of Delhi's Joshi Adhikar Sansthan, a cultural organisation, CPM state secretary Sanjay Parate, sarpanch Manju Keswani, who is from the CPI, and a local resident, Mangal Karma. “The police had intensified its campaign against the activists as it had been raising voices of poor people in Bastar,” Bhardwaj said.

The main opposition party, Congress has also raised questions over the working of Bastar police. “If the police act intentionally without any evidence, it would damage its position among villagers,” Gyanesh Sharma, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC), spokesperson said. Even the top brass of state police was not happy with the working of Bastar police, he claimed, adding that the silence of BJP-led state government on the issue was surprising.