Sukma killings: Chhattisgarh government opposes CBI probe plea

The Chhattisgarh government on Monday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea for a CBI inquiry into the killing of 15 alleged Maoists by security forces in Sukma district on August 6, terming it bogus.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi disputed the claims of the petitioner NGO and told the court that photos attached to the plea are not of the said incident.

"The petitioner says there are eight minors (killed in the shootout) but there was no minor," Rohatgi told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

The court asked General Secretary N. Narayan Rao of NGO Civil Liberty Committee to file an affidavit in support of the claims in the public interest litigation.

The bench said that the petitioner has to file an affidavit about the authenticity of the photographs and posted the matter for August 29.

During the hearing, the NGO's counsel said that the petitioner NGO was concerned only with the innocent tribals and not Maoists.

The NGO had urged the apex court for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigating Team (SIT).

It also sought directions for an inquiry by a sitting Judge of the High Court.

On August 6, police said that 15 Maoists were killed and a senior cadre and a woman rebel captured after a gun battle with security forces in Sukma district following intelligence inputs about the presence of a large number of Maoists.

Eight Maoists, including four women, were gunned down by security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on July 19.

In April, eight Maoists -- six of them women -- were killed in a joint operation by Chhattisgarh and Telangana securitymen near the inter-state boundary in Bijapur.

--IANS

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