Tadmetla encounter: Chhattisgarh top cops to meet Rajnath Singh
The Chhattisgarh police seems to be in a damage control mode after CBI filed chargesheet in court stating that Bastar police set the houses of tribals on fire in Tadmetla.
IG Bastar SRP Kalluri, DGP AN Upadhyay and ADG DM Awasthi reportedly flew to Delhi where they will be meeting Officers and Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday.
Tadmetla encounter: Chhattisgarh top cops to meet Rajnath Singh
The delegation is also expected to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Modi to chalk out proper strategy to deal with the situation efficiently, informed the sources.
After the CBI probe report related to Tadmetla incident was filed, the state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel had demanded arrest of Bastar IG SRP Kalluri accusing him of being responsible for the incident and also for other blatant human rights violations by the security forces in the region.
Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Soni Sori also accused Bastar IG for implicating the innocent tribals in false cases and patronising other police atrocities.
“Setting up of Bastar battalion, involving local tribals, is in fact an attempt to provide weapons and push them to forefront of an armed conflict,” she alleged.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Paikra said that the guilty will be punished according to law. He added that state government is not sheltering any guilty person rather it ordered a fair probe.
The shift of stand by government had put Bastar IG under tremendous pressure. Thus, to defend his actions Bastar IG SRP Kalluri maintained that police did not set houses on fire during anti-Naxal operation. He added that police could not present its case properly before the central investigating agency.
“I remember it very well. Whatever has happened under the guidance. I want to tell few leaders that I am not a coward. Now, whatever happens, I should face it ad I was the senior superintendent of police at that time”, Kalluri told reporters in Bastar.
“Anyone can see the FIR. Parties of security forces went as per SSP order. I am responsible. It was a major operation. It was not a joke or a game. We have to rise above politics and see it. National Human Rights Commission wanted us to expedite investigations and we informed it that it’s very difficult to do it in that region. Yet, we were asked to complete probe within a time frame. We tried several times and there were encounters”, he explained.
On the issue, Congress President Bhupesh Baghel said, Kalluri must know his limits before giving advice to us, CBI mentioned in its affidavit that the force ventured into those villages and they burnt houses of tribal villagers. Thus, now it is time for State government to intiate action against such officers.