C'garh tribal murder: Left leaders, rights group demand

Left leaders and rights groups today hit out at the Chhattisgarh government over booking a DU and a JNU professor for the murder of a tribal in the state and demanded that it quash the FIR registered against them and remove a senior police official.
With the winter session starting November 16, the leaders said they will raise the issue of "undeclared encounter war against tribals" in Parliament.
"There is an undeclared encounter war going on against the tribals in Chhattisgarh. An assault has been launched on them in the name of fighting Left extremists. Even legal, legitimate political activities are not being allowed," CPI National Secretary D Raja said.

"Our activists and well-known intellectuals have been named in a fabricated case. We demand that the FIR be withdrawn and the IGP (Bastar Range) SRP Kalluri removed from services over his role in the matter," the Rajya Sabha member said.
A statement issued by Campaign for Peace and Justice and Women Against Sexual Violence -- and signed by Raja, CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat and others -- said Kalluri should stripped of the President's Award he received in 2013 for "meritorious service" with immediate effect.
They alleged that Kalluri was involved in burning of homes in Tadmetla, Morpalli and Timmapuram and "numerous cases of fake encounters, mass rapes and sexual assault by men under his command" in Dantewada district in 2010 and 2011.

The groups said Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar, JNU's Archana Prasad and eight others including CPI and CPI(M) activists were part of a fact-finding committee that had visited parts of Bastar in May to "document various incidents of forceful surrenders of villagers by police".

"The vicious campaign against the team started during the fact-finding itself. It is really ironical that the members of the team are now booked for murder when there is no link whatsoever of this murder to the visit of these people. It's a step taken solely to harass Sundar and others," they alleged.
Sundar and Prasad are among 10 people named by police in connection with the murder of a tribal villager, Shamnath Baghel, based on the complaint of his wife.

Armed Naxals had allegedly killed Baghel on Friday night at his residence in Nama village in Naxal-affected Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.