2012 C'garh encounter: Cong demands action against culprits

A delegation of Congress MLAs from Chhattisgarh's Bastar region on Tuesday met Governor Anusuiya Uikey seeking action over the findings of a judicial inquiry into a 2012 encounter in which 17 people were killed.

In the intervening night of June 28-29 that year, 17 people, including seven minors, were killed in action carried out by a team of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhattisgarh police in Sarkeguda village in Bijapur.

While the security forces claimed they fired on Maoists after getting specific inputs of their presence, a hue and cry by civil rights activists and local people forced the then BJP government to institute a judicial inquiry.

A report of the one-member judicial commission headed by Justice V K Agrawal, a retired judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court, which was tabled in the state assembly on Monday, said "security forces opened fire unilaterally on members (villagers) of the meeting from close quarters, killing and injuring many of them."