Indian Vanguard

“The surge of mass rising can’t be stopped by killing us.”

Supreme Leading Committee, PBSP (MBRM), 1st week, December’11.

The Communists guide the oppressed class to the way of freedom, lead them in the struggle of changing their fate. Hence, for the reactionaries, the most favourite option for keeping the oppressed under control is to demolish the communists. It is their design to diminish the onward movement of revolution, which is essential for the oppressed class. In the Indian subcontinent, such a barbaric attitude was first imported by Indira Gandhi and the Congress govt. Later on, it was exported to the neighbouring countries including East Bengal. Sonia Gandhi, daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, present leader of the Indian Congress party, is still practising the same reactionary, savage, severe policy of which Comrade Kishenji has been the last victim.

Comrade Kishenji alias Koteshwara Rao was the Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). With a goal to establishing neo-democracy, socialism and communism overthrowing the rule of imperialism-feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism, Comrade Kishenji, both in practice and theory, had been playing a decisive role in the Maoist people’s war led by the CPI(M).

Under the leadership of comrade Kishenji, people’s war of the Maoists developed in Telengana, Dandakaranya, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal provinces, particularly in the Junglemahal region, shook the base of Indian exploit some ruling class. As a result, the central govt. of India led by wared Sonia-Manmohan and their partner West Bengal state govt. led by Mamata Banerjee, became up and to uproot the Maoists, especially to assassinate one of the top leaders Comrade Kishenji. Consequently, Comrade Kishenji was arrested, tortured in chains and brutally killed in the region of Junglemahal on 24 November under the guise of so called encounter.

Comrade Kishenji dreamt of the freedom of the oppressed class. His dream is our own dream. His dream is the dream of the Maoist communists all over the world. Comrade Kishenji had been in the forefront of the worldwide struggle for establishing neo-democracy, socialism and communism overthrowing the rule of imperialism-feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism. So, the killing of Kishenji is a great loss for the Maoist communists all over the world. And the oppressed class have lost a forerunner of their war.

Like Comrade Kishenji, we too, in our country, are struggling, for establishing neo-democracy, socialism and communism overthrowing the rule of imperialism-feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism. In this case, Indian reactionary ruling class is one of the biggest enemies to our revolution . So, we consider that, the struggle of the Indian communists against these same enemies, goes in favour of the revolution of our country. For this, the brutal killing of Comrade Kishenji, we are hurt at losing our nearest one. It gives us pain of shedding blood and losing flesh, bone marrow of our own body as we felt at the death of Comrade Siraj Sikder, Comrade Taher Azmi, Comrade Ramkrishna Paul. We are deeply saddened at the death of Comrade Kishenji and expressing severe condemnation of this barbarous killing.

The aim of the reactionaries is to suppress the revolution by committing killing of Comrade Charu Majumder, Comrade Siraj Sikder along with innumerable Maoists. Let their evil design never come true. For this, we have to advance the revolutionary struggle for the implementation of Kishenji’s dream, all of our own dream, being united with all the Maoist communists of the world. Thus we have to prove again that, “The surge of mass rising can’t be stopped by killing us”.

We express our deepest condolence to the CPI (M) and to the bereaved family of Comrade Kishenji and hope that they will recover the loss soon. It is a universal fact that “day and night appear by phases.” and “darkness and light substitute each other”. In the same way, “triumph shall mount over all the sufferings.” 

पोस्‍टमॉर्टम के दौरान खींची गईं माओवादी नेता किशनजी की ये तस्‍वीरें आज सुबह सर्कुलेट हुई हैं। अब तक वरवरा राव समेत किशनजी की भतीजी, उनकी मां और मुख्‍यधारा की राजनीति के कई नेताओं ने आरोप लगाए हैं कि किशनजी को पुलिस मुठभेड़ में नहीं मारा गया (जैसा कि सरकार का दावा है), बल्कि बिल्‍कुल चेरुकुरी आज़ाद की तर्ज़ पर गिरफ्तार कर के प्रताड़ना दी गई और फिर मारा गया। इन तस्‍वीरों के आने से पहले ये महज़ आरोप कहे जा सकते थे, लेकिन नीचे दी गई तस्‍वीरों को देखने के बाद भी कुछ कहने की ज़रूरत रह जाती है क्‍या …????

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release

November 25, 2011

Condemn the brutal murder of Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao, the beloved leader of the oppressed masses,
the leader of Indian revolution and CPI (Maoist) Politburo member!

Observe protest week from November 29 to December 5
and 48-hour ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5!!

November 24, 2011 would remain a black day in the annals of Indian revolutionary movement’s history. The fascist Sonia-Manmohan-Pranab-Chidambaram-Jairam Ramesh ruling clique who have been raising a din that CPI (Maoist) is ‘the biggest internal security threat’, in collusion with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, killed Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao after capturing him alive in a well planned conspiracy. This clique which had killed Comrade Azad, our party’s spokesperson on July 1, 2010 once again spread its dragnet and quenched its thirst for blood. Mamata Banerjee, who had shed crocodile’s tears over the murder of Comrade Azad before coming to power, while enacting the drama of talks on the one hand after assuming office, killed another topmost leader Comrade Koteswara Rao and thus displayed nakedly its anti-people and fascist facet. The central intelligence agencies and the killer intelligence agencies of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh chased him in a well planned conspiracy and killed him in a cowardly manner in a joint operation and now spreading a concocted story of encounter. The central home secretary R.K. Singh even while lying that they do not know for certain who died in the encounter, has in the same breath announced that this is a big blow to the Maoist movement. Thus he nakedly gave away their conspiracy behind this killing. The oppressed people would definitely send to grave the exploiting ruling classes and their imperialist masters who are day dreaming that they could wipe out the Maoist party by killing the top leadership of the revolutionary movement.

Comrade Koteswara Rao, who is hugely popular as Prahlad, Ramji, Kishenji and Bimal inside the party and among the people, is one of the important leaders of the Indian revolutionary movement. The tireless warrior who never rested his gun while fighting for the liberation of the oppressed masses since the past 37 years and who has laid down his life for the sake of the ideology he believed in, was born in 1954 in Peddapally town of Karimnagar district of North Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. Raised by his father Late Venkataiah who was a freedom fighter and his mother Madhuramma, who has been of progressive views, Koteswara Rao imbibed love for his country and its oppressed masses since childhood. In 1969, he had participated in the historic separate Telangana movement while he was in his high school studies in Peddapally town. He joined the revolutionary movement with the inspiration of the glorious Naxalbari and Srikakulam movements while studying graduation in SRR college of Karimnagar. He started working as an active member of the Party from 1974. He spent some time in jail during the black period of the Emergency. After lifting up of the Emergency, he started working as a party organizer in his home district of Karimnagar. He responded to the “Go to Villages” campaign call of the party and developed relations with the peasantry by going to the villages. He was one of those who played a prominent role in the upsurge of peasant movement popular as ‘Jagityal Jaitrayatra’ (Victory March of Jagityal) in 1978. In this course, he was elected as the district committee member of the Adilabad-Karimnagar joint committee of the CPI (ML). In 1979 when this committee was divided into two district committees he became the secretary of the Karimnagar district committee. He participated in the Andhra Pradesh state 12th party conference, was elected to the AP state committee and took responsibilities as its secretary.

Up to 1985, as part of the AP state committee leadership he played a crucial role in spreading the movement all over the state and in developing the North Telangana movement which was advancing with guerilla zone perspective. He played a prominent role in expanding the movement to Dandakaranya (DK) and developing it. He was transferred to Dandakaranya in 1986 and took up responsibilities as a member of the Forest Committee. He led the guerilla squads and the people in Gadchiroli and Bastar areas of DK. In 1993 he was co-opted as a member into the Central Organizing Committee (COC).

From 1994 onwards he mainly worked to spread and develop the revolutionary movement in Eastern and Northern parts of India including West Bengal. Particularly his role in uniting the revolutionary forces which were scattered after the setback of the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal and in reviving the revolutionary movement there is extraordinary. He mingled deeply with the oppressed masses of Bengal and the various sections of the revolutionary camp, learnt Bangla language with determination and left an indelible mark in the hearts of the people there. He worked tirelessly in achieving unity with several revolutionary groups and in strengthening the party. Comrade Koteswara Rao was elected as a Central Committee (CC) member in the All India Special Conference of erstwhile CPI (ML) (People’s War) held in 1995. He strived for achieving unity between People’s War and Party Unity in 1998. In the Party Congress of erstwhile CPI (ML)(PW) held in 2001 he was once again elected into CC and Politburo. He took up responsibilities as the secretary of the North Regional Bureau (NRB) and led the revolutionary movements in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab states. Simultaneously he played a key role in the unity talks held between erstwhile PW and MCCI. He served as a member of the unified CC and Politburo formed after the merger of the two parties in 2004 and worked as a member of the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB). He mainly concentrated on the state movement of West Bengal and continued as the spokesperson of the ERB.

Comrade Koteswara Rao played a prominent role in running party magazines and in the field of political education inside the party. He took part in running ‘Kranti’, ‘Errajenda’, ‘Jung’, ‘Prabhat’, ‘Vanguard’ and other party magazines. He had a special role to play in bringing out various revolutionary magazines in West Bengal. He wrote many theoretical and political articles in these magazines. He was a member of the Sub-Committee on Political Education (SCOPE) and played a prominent role in teaching Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the party ranks. In the entire history of the party he played a memorable role in expanding the revolutionary movement, in enriching the party documents and in developing the movement. He participated in the Unity Congress-9th Congress of the party held in 2007 January, was elected as CC member once again and took responsibilities of Politburo member and member of the ERB.

The political guidance given by Comrade Koteswara Rao to the Singur and Nandigram people’s movements which erupted since 2007 against the anti-people and pro-corporate policies of the social fascist CPM government in West Bengal and particularly to the glorious upsurge of people’s rebellion in Lalgarh against police atrocities is prominent. He guided the West Bengal state committee and the party ranks to lead these movements and on the other hand conducted party propaganda through the media too with initiative. In 2009 when the Chidambaram clique tried to mislead the middle classes in the name of talks and ceasefire, he worked significantly in exposing it. He did enormous work in keeping aloft the importance of People’s War and in taking the revolutionary politics into the vast masses. This great revolutionary journey which went on for almost four decades came to an abrupt end on November 24, 2011.

Beloved People! Democrats!!

Do condemn this brutal murder. It is the conspiracy of the ruling classes to wipe out the revolutionary leadership and deprive the people of correct guidance and proletarian leadership. It is a known fact that the Maoist movement is the biggest hurdle to the big robbers and compradors who are stashing millions in Swiss banks by selling for peanuts the Jal, Jungle and Zameen of the country to the imperialist sharks. The multi-pronged, country-wide brutal offensive named Operation Green Hunt of the past two years is exactly serving this purpose. This cold-blooded murder is part of that. It is the duty of the patriots and freedom-loving people of the country to protect the revolutionary movement and its leadership like the pupil of their eye. It’s nothing but protecting the future of the country and that of the next generations.

Even at the age of 57, Com. Koteswara Rao led the hard life of a guerilla like a young man and had filled the cadres and people with great enthusiasm wherever he went. His life would particularly serve as a great inspiration to the younger generation. He studied and worked for hours together without rest and traveled great distances. He slept very little, led a simple life and was a hard worker. He used to mingle easily with people of all ages and with people who come from various social sections and fill them with revolutionary enthusiasm. No doubt, the martyrdom of Comrade Koteswara Rao is a great loss to the Indian revolutionary movement. But the people of our country are very great. It is the people and the people’s movements which gave birth to courageous and dedicated revolutionaries like Koteswara Rao. The workers and peasants and the revolutionaries who have imbibed the revolutionary spirit of Koteswara Rao right from Jagityal to Jungle Mahal and who have armed themselves with the revolutionary fragrance he spread all over the country would definitely lead the Indian New Democratic Revolution in a victory path. They would wipe out the imperialists and their lackey landlord and comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and their representatives like Sonia, Manmohan, Chidambaram and Mamata Banerjee.

Our CC is appealing to the people of the country to observe protest week from November 29 to December 5 and observe 48-hour ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5 in protest of the brutal murder of Comrade Koteswara Rao. We are appealing that they take up various programmes like holding meetings, rallies, dharnas, wearing black badges, road blocks etc protesting this murder. We are requesting that trains, roadways, commercial and educational institutions be closed and that all kinds of trade transactions be stopped as part of the ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5. However, we are exempting medical services from the Bandh.

(Abhay)

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI (Maoist)

September 12, 2011

by Himanshu Kumar (Translated by Deepankar Basu, Sanhati)

(Source: Janjawar, 7 September 2011)

It is common in Dantewada for the police to pass off responsibility for their crimes onto the Maoists. While the media parrots the police version, people accept this as yet another instance of “inherent Maoist cruelty”. I would like to highlight a recent event from Dantewada as an example of phenomenon. The event in question, it is interesting to note, has not only seen the incarceration of sub inspector of police, Ghanshyam Patel, but also the rejection of his bail petition by the High Court. Two SPOs involved in this event, moreover, are absconding.

I informed Medha Patkar about these murders. When Medha Patkar wrote about this event to DGP Vishwaranjan, the latter had retorted that Himanshu has the habit of lying. It must have been the handiwork of the the Maoists, the DGP went on to suggest to Medha. Now, a sub inspector from his own police force is behind bars for the incident. So, who has been lying?

The event in question took place on 18th March, 2007. On that day in Salwa Judum camp Matwada in Bijapur district (of Chhattisgarh), sub inspector Ghanshaym Patel and 15 other SPOs brutally killed three adivasis. The adivasis were first beaten up by sticks; then their eyes were gouged by knives; and then, their heads were smashed by stones. The dead bodies were buried in the sand on the banks of a nearby river and the media was informed that the Maoists had killed the three adivasis.

The newspapers, of course, published the police version of the incident. In reality, the three adivasis that were brutally put to death had committed the crime of going to their village, every morning, for collecting and selling mahua fruits to buy rice to feed their hungry children. The police and SPOs were angry about the possible consequence of this daily morning visit to the village. What if more and more adivasis started the trek back to their village? If all of them left the Salwa Judum camp, how would the SPOs hide from the Maoists among innocent people?

My friend Kopa Kunjum had been terribly agitated by this event. In those days (when he had still not been jailed), Kopa had been working on public health issues in the same area where this killing had taken place (and the Salwa Judum camp was located). Suddenly he disappeared and reappeared after three days with the kith and kin, including brothers and wives, of the three adivasis who had been murdered. We invited to media to come and talk directly to the wives of the three who had been killed. This created a veritable storm: interviews of these widows started appearing in Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Kanker and Bilaspur. The State was on the back foot!

We filed a case about this event in the Chhattisgarh High Court. As part of its defense, the government came out with a ludicrous story. These women, the government claimed, have been captured by an NGO called Vanavasi Chetna Ashram…After these women had lodged FIRs against the Maoists, the government story went, the Maoists had asked them to make false allegations against the police…To have them do so, the Maoists had beaten up these women…That is why, claimed the government, these women had levelled false allegations against the police.

In the context of providing support to these unfortunate women, the State and the police declared us as Maoists in court. It is a different matter that, in the High Court, now the Chhattisgarh police is being hauled over the coals in the same case. But the State has refused to accept its previous mistakes and tender any apologies. Since we had helped the law enforcement machinery, this should be duly recognized; and, proceedings should be initiated against those who had declared us as Maoists in court. But, let it be. Which individual in the State machinery would be generous enough to take this up? In fact, as a reward for our efforts Kopa Kunjum has been put behind bars and my ashram demolished. Anyways…

This incident has been investigated by the Human Rights Commission. In its report, the Commission has pointed out that it is extremely difficult to accept the police version that the three adivasis had been killed by the Maoists. Because the incident took place bang in front of a police station… And right behind the scene of the incident is a big CRPF camp… That is why it would be nearly impossible for the Maoists to come there and kill them… Sub Inspector Ghanshyam Patel, the person who wrote the FIR against the Maoists, is himself indicted with the killings. The widows of the murdered adivasis, with our help, lodged the complaint for the killing of their husbands against the same police officer and the SPOs.

That is why it is essential to investigate the FIR written by him (Ghanshyam Patel)… And the High Court, while dismissing his bail plea, noted in its remarks that since Sub Inspector Ghanshyam Patel had himself written the FIR and since the widows had lodged a complaint against him for the same murders, his application is nullified.

Source: Thehalka

This is not the first time Soni Sori has been targeted by the Chhattisgarh police. Hiding in the jungles of Chhattisgarh Sori speaks to Tusha Mittal, about why she is being hunted

Soni Sori Photo: Tehelka Photo

ALSO READ Life Behind The Iron Curtain The After Kill Of Narayanpatna ‘Salwa Judum Spared No One’

This is the story of a tribal woman named Soni Sori, 35, a teacher in a government primary school. As you read this, she is hiding in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, dodging bullets, fleeing from police. She is hiding because, perhaps, she knows too much. When Sori spoke to this correspondent in hurried, muffled phrases on the evening of September 11, she had just shifted location. That afternoon, as she hid in mountainous terrain, there was the thud of boots closing in. She ran. They fired. She lived.

This is the story of a tribal man named Lingaram Kodopi, a 25-year-old jeep driver from Chhattisgarh. He had once been wooed by the banned CPI (Maoist), offered a party position. He refused. He has since been threatened by the rebels. He had once been locked up in a toilet in the Dantewada police station for 40 days, brutally beaten, then offered Rs 12,000 a month to become a Special Police Officer (SPO). He refused. He has since been under police radar. In the winter of 2009, Lingaram Kodopi did what many others in Chhattisgarh’s conflict zone have been compelled to: he fled.

In Delhi, Kodopi lived in the basement of an NGO and enrolled in a journalism course in Noida. “I know I will be arrested if I go back home,” Kodopi had earlier told TEHELKA. “But why should I be afraid? I want to do something for my community. Both the Naxals and the police threaten me because they know I don’t fear them.”

He returned to Dantewada in April this year after the 300 homes were razed to rubble in a three-day police operation. At great personal risk, he visited the burnt villages of Morpalli, Tadmetla and Timmapuram, saw first-hand the debri of attacks by the COBRA and Koya Commandoes, met raped women and got precise narrations of police atrocities. By now, a trained video journalist, Kodopi was just beginning to document the stories of his own people.

Kodopi was arrested on September 10. Dantewada SP Ankit Garg confirmed that he has been charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, and sections 121, 124A and 120 B of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, sedition, and waging war against the State of India.

On Independence Day this year, both Kodopi and his aunt Soni had defied the Maoist order to raise black flags in Chhattisgarh. When Maoists tried to put up one in Kodopi’s village, he tore it apart in their presence. When rebels directed Sori to remove the Indian flag from her ashram school, she refused. “Too many people have died for this,” she told the rebels. This is why the story of this aunt and nephew is significant. It is the story of another kind of adivasi voice trying to speak crisp and clear from the chaos of a conflict where all parties claim to speak for them.

TEHELKA has learnt that in June this year, a few months before his arrest, Lingaram Kodopi met senior IAS officer and Bastar Division Commissioner K Srinivasulu. “Both the police and the Maoists are killing my people. This has to stop,” Kodopi told the officer. In a significant admission, Srinivasulu has confirmed to TEHELKA that he met Kodopi, a man the Chhattisgarh police have described as a Maoist commander. “Yes, I met him. He came to my office with social activist Swami Agnivesh. I cannot say whether he is a Maoist or not. I don’t think he has any Maoist links,” Srinivasulu told TEHELKA. “I know him is a poor tribal boy from a backward region trying to study in Delhi. He represents this area. He told me he fled because the police doubt him to be a Maoist informer. I said he should return, he belongs here, his presence here is important. I said I would help him in whatever way I can. I have a soft corner for him.”

Srinivasulu said he was not aware of Kodopi’s arrest. “I was traveling. I have just returned. I am hearing about this from you. I have called the Inspector General and Superintendent of Police to find out. It is an allegation of the police. It has to be proved. We will try to sort it out.

It is past sundown in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, and still Soni Sori must not return home. In frantic phone calls, she has been warned of men in plain clothes lurking outside her mud-hut, roaming the village market, patrolling all entry and exit points.

“Soni Sori is absconding,” confirmed Dantewada SP Ankit Garg. “We are looking for her.”

Over a breaking phone signal, her voice fading in and out, this is what Sori told TEHELKA on September 11: “The police are trying to kill me. They fired at me today. I fled. I fell into a hole as I was running. I managed to hide. I’m trying to escape from here. I need to get to Delhi. They know I know too much. I need to stay alive to keep the truth alive. They don’t want me to reach Delhi. I can’t let them kill me.”

There is nothing in Soni’s exasperated voice to suggest helplessness, to suggest that she is a victim. What is more terrifying is her sense of resolve. Last year, the Chhattisgarh police arrested her husband on charges of Maoist activity. Two months ago the Maoists accused her family of aiding the police, looted her house, and shot her father in the leg. “I can’t understand what’s going on,” she continued. “The Maoists looted everything we have. They shot at my father. Now, I’m running from the police. My five-year-old daughter is at home crying. My husband is in jail for being a Maoist. I don’t know what they want. Just wait. Let me come to Delhi. I will expose them. I cannot tell you on the phone what I know. Let me get out of here first. I don’t want to anger the police now.”

According to the Chhattisgarh police both Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi are abetting the banned CPI(Maoist). On September 10, police arrested Lingaram Kodopi and a local contractor named BK Lala for attempting to transfer funds to the Maoist party. The arrests were made after a secret US embassy cable released by the Wikileaks website alleged that Essar industrial group was paying huge sums to the Maoists to not interfere with their mining operations in Chhattisgarh. Essar has denied this.

“Lala was acting on behalf of Essar while Kodopi was acting on behalf of the Maoists”, Dantewada SP Ankit Garg told TEHELKA. “We arrested them from a weekly market in Palnar village. They planned to exchange Rs 15 lakh. We got a tip off and caught them red-handed with the money. There was another woman called Soni Sori with them. She escaped due to some confusion. “

Sori denies the allegation. “This is totally false. Seven men in civil dress arrested Lingaram from my house in Palnar village. They tried to drag me as well, but could not. We have nothing to do with Essar,” she told TEHELKA. She also revealed what is a significant twist to the official version. “The police wanted Lingaram and I to pose as Maoists. They asked us to meet the Essar representative as Maoists. They told us to collect Rs 15 lakh from Lala and hand it to them. We refused to do it.”

Asked whether the police plan to question any named Essar officials, Garg said: “BK Lala has confessed during interrogation that he was supplying money on behalf of Essar. But the statement of an accused has no value. It has to be corroborated. We will question Essar officials. If this claim is verified, then we will definitely make arrests and take legal action against Essar as well.”

This is not the first time Sori and Kodopi have been targeted by the Chhattisgarh police. “Both are Maoist associates with a criminal record,” SP Garg told TEHELKA. In July 2010, Chhattisgarh police issued warrants against the Kodopi, Sori and her husband for involvement in a Maoist attack on a Congress worker Avdesh Gautaum and his son. Gautam had escaped unhurt, while his son sustained bullet injuries. Incidentally, Sori’s elder brother Vijay Sori is a Congress block president in Dantewada. “This was not right. The Maoists should not have attacked Gautam’s son,” Soni told TEHELKA in an earlier interview.

Sources say the Maoist attack came after Gautam had convinced then Dantewada collector Reena Kangale to close down all the PDS distribution shops in Dantewada’s Kuakonda block. Alleging that Naxals were benefiting from rice doled out of village PDS shops, Gautam suggested he control all the rice distribution from a central point, his home. If any Maoists came to collect rice, he reasoned, he could then have them arrested. Gautam could not be reached for comment.

“It is Avdesh Gautam who named me in the FIR,” Sori says. “The police asked me ‘Did you not feel remorse attacking his son?’ Then they said they will withdraw the arrest warrant if I give them information about Maoist meetings and threatened to arrest me if I don’t.” Sori told TEHELKA in an earlier interview. The police also threatened her to sign a document which implicated them in the crime.

“The document said Lingaram is not of good character, that he travels to Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and abroad. It said that both Lingaram and I had attended a Naxal meeting in Andhra Pradesh a week before the attack on Avdesh Gautam,” Soni says.

It is these allegations that surfaced in a Chhattisgarh police press release in July last year. It alleged that Lingaram Kodopi is a senior Maoist Commander who received arms training in Delhi and Gujarat, and who frequently travels to America. It also touted him as a potential successor to CPI(Maoist) central spokesperson Azad who was killed in an encounter last year. Kodopi does not have a passport and claims he was not even present in Dantewada at the time of the Naxal attack on Gautam. He challenged these allegations in a press conference in New Delhi with social activist Swami Agnivesh and lawyer Prashant Bhushan. “There is no difference between the police and the Maoists,” he said.

It remains unclear whether the Chhattisgarh police continue to view Kodopi as a “Maoist commander” and spokesperson, or whether they now view him as a “Maoist associate.” When asked, Garg told TEHELKA: “In this particular case [Essar money transfer], it suggests he was playing the role of a Maoist associate. In the previous case, we are still ascertaining his role. Maoists spokesperson are not a single person, until they are completely identified (sic). As far as the Congress case is concerned, we are still investigating how Kodopi was connected. We are looking at all possible angles.”

It also remains unclear why the Chhattisgarh police have not yet arrested Soni Sori. While Kodopi fled to Delhi in 2009, Soni has remained in her village Palnar. “There are three arrest warrants against her. She has been absconding,” Garg told TEHELKA. This is a dubious claim since Soni says she had been marking attendance at a government school all along. “Yes, Soni is a government teacher. She was attending school,” Garg admitted to TEHELKA. “We tried to nab her several times but we were not able to. She could not be found [in the school]. We have written to the Collector to take appropriate action against her.”

A likely explanation for the police’s inability to arrest Sori is perhaps that she was being used as bait to lure Kodopi back to Chhattisgarh. “The police told me they will release my husband and withdraw my warrant if I call Linga back. But how can I betray my nephew?” Sori said.

Why Kodopi became a police target also remains unclear. It points to the eccentricities of a conflict zone where merely owning a motorcycle or organizing villagers can leave you marked. “My name is Lingaram from Sameli. I am a driver. My family has a car in which I ferry people. We have some land on which we farm. I am not very literate,” Kodopi said during an Independent People’s Tribunal held in Delhi in April 2010.

“I was watching TV at home in September last year. Five motorcycles came, with 10 men holding AK 47s. They asked me questions such as “Where did you get the bike from? How do you go about in style?” My family is fairly comfortably off, but they accused me of being a Naxalite. Then the police tortured me for 40 days. Why can’t we adivasis wear a good watch or drive a car without being picked up by the police?”

Kodopi was released from police custody on the direction of the Bilaspur High Court after his family filed a habeas corpus petition. Before he fled Chhattisgarh, Kodopi had been assisting a government project to built 22 toilets in Dantewada’s Kuakonda block.

“I’ve seen Avatar five times,” he once told then freelance journalist Divya Gupta. “Look at the technology used in that picture and the amount of money spent. In reality there are people dying who nobody wants to save. But I really liked that movie, even if it cost so much. It’s about us.”

Tusha Mittal is a Principal Correspondent with Tehelka.
tusha@tehelka.com

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