Raipur: An 8-member fact-finding team has found numerous cases of violence against Christians as well as fake encounters, rapes, and arbitrary arrests in Chhattisgarh.
The All India People’s Forum (AIPF) team that visited four districts of Bastar between June 8-11 has found that Christians are being prevented building churches and using burial grounds in several villages.
Two AIPF teams covered 1,650 kilometers in their journey, where they encountered more than 60 police and paramilitary camps. But in the 25 villages that the teams visited, the residents were insecure and suspicious of each other. In these four districts, political groups and other organizations are rather inactive, suggesting that the scope for democracy has shrunk there, the team said.
Most of the villages visited by the teams were without electricity, without roads, and lacking in education and health facilities.
In some villages under Bastar district have wrongly invoked Chhattisgarh Gram Panchayat Act to pass resolutions to restrict non-Hindus from residing or building places of worship. This was done even after the High Court quashed such village council resolutions.
In Bhadhisgaon, a village under Tokapal panchayat, the Gram Panchayat stopped Pastor Pilaram Kawde from building a place of worship on his land. The reason given was that “People of big-big castes and religions live in this village, and every Dussehra even the Roopshila Devi Ma joins the celebrations.”
When an elderly Christian woman died in Bhadisgaon village on May 25, its Hindu residents incited by the Bajrang Dal, a radical Hindu group, stopped Christians from burying her. She was finally buried in a casket without cross after negotiations by the police. The Hindus then warned that they would not allow any Christian burial in future.
The same drama was repeated on June 6 when the woman’s husband died. The Hindu villagers prevented Christians from conducting his last rites and threatened to kill them if they tried to bury him. Eventually after police arrived, he was buried. The Hindus said they would get Bajrang Dal help if Christians tried to bury their dead in the village.
All this prompted some 200 Christians of the village to plead with civil and police officials of the district to allot them separate burial grounds, the fact-finding team noted.
Some 25 Bajrang Dal activists attacked a Sunday service at Ara village in Ambikapur district on June 5. They vandalized the church; and beat up the pastor, his wife and three others. They made a video of the thrashing and made it ‘viral.’ They dragged the pastor, his wife and three others to a nearby police post where they were detained for hours. The police registered no case against the assailants, but arrested the pastor, who has not received bail even after a week, the AIPF team reported.
In another village, Sirisguda, Hindu radicals obstructed distribution of subsidized food items to Christians and trashed even the Food Department officials. The assailants did not allow ambulance to enter the village to take the wounded Christians to hospital.
The AIPF team also found that Hindu militant groups prevent Christians in the same village from drawing water. At a meeting convened by the district magistrate the activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council) and Bajrang Dal said they would chase out Christians from the village unless they convert to Hinduism.
The fact-finding team also came across cases of repression and intimidation of villagers resisting violations of forest rights for Raoghat mine.
Ramkumar Darro of Kohche village in Kanker district said that 25 hectares of land have been acquired for Raoghat Mines without informing the villagers or their council.
“Officially the Raoghat Mines, as well as adjoining dam and railway lines are for Bhilai Steel Plant but a consortium of private companies will be involved with the mining project,” the team’s report noted.
The mining company has cut trees and grabbed forest land that tribals had possessed for the past 50 years. It has also destroyed several places of worship of tribals and taken over even the burial grounds. Camps of paramilitary forces have come up at every kilometer in the area. When Darro protested, an official threatened to jail him as a Maoist.
A special police officer raped a village girl who had a baby him. No case was registered. The officer promised to pay 50,000 rupees as compensation, but gave only half that amount, the team said.
The team also came across cases of fake encounters. Four women were killed in Nagalguda village under Dantewada district on November 21, 2015. A former Maoist, who had become a police informer, accompanied the force. He raped one of the women before killing her. The government decorated and promoted 22 policemen for this encounter. This was done despite National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court ruling out rewarding policemen for encounters.
In Arlampalli village in Sukma district, the residents narrated to the team that on November 3, 2015, police shot dead three young men by security forces who were on a combing operation. No case was registered.
In Palamagdu, another village in the same district, the police shot dead two teenage girls who had gone to bathe in a river on January 31 this year. However, the newspapers later quoted the police to report that two women Maoists were killed. The police claimed that the women could not run as they were in saris and fell into a ditch.
The team came across the rape of a 14-year-old girl by a Central Reserved Police Force soldier in Podum village in Dantewada district on June 8. They and local social activist Soni Sori forced the police to send the girls for medical examination. The name and number the soldier gave to the girls proved to be false
The team also exposed fake surrenders. They visited the Chintalnar area that had reported 50 surrenders. A trader told the team that he was called to a police station saying there was a warrant against him. When he went there he and 25 others were given a choice: either agree to surrender or get arrested in a case of killing a police officer two years ago. The 55-year-old trader said they all agreed to surrender and were given 10,000 each rupees on the spot.
The AIPF team comprised former Madhya Pradesh legistor Sunilam of Samajwadi Samagam, former Jharkhand legislator Vinod Singh, Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association, Brijendra Tiwari of All Indian Central Council for Trade Unions, Amlan Bhatacharya, state secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties West Bengal, Advocate Aradhana Bhargava of Chhindwara, Advocate Ajoy Dutta of Kolkata and Amlendu Choudhury. Local activists Bela Bhatia and Soni Sori accompanied the team.