Superintendent of Police, Visakhapatnam district, Koya Praveen, strongly contested the opinion that the police was mobilising the Girijans in the interior parts of the Agency area for a Salwa Judum type of operation against the Maoists.
Addressing media here on Friday, he said that the news reports published in various dailies on Friday, were based on a press communication released by the Maoists and it was unfounded.
“Arming or training the villagers or the Girijans for an operation against the Maoist was against law and there is no need for us to do so,” he said.
He went on to add that the Maoists were unable to digest the Viravaram incident, where the local people rebelled against them and clobbered to death one area commander and a militia member.
“They (Maoists) are now indulging in false propaganda. In fact the press release was released in the name of one Kailasam, who was killed in an encounter four years ago. All communications are being released by Ramchandra Reddy alias Pratap Reddy alias Chalapathi in the name of Kailasam,” he said.
Spontaneous reactionAccording to him, Viravaram incident was a spontaneous reaction to the atrocities committed by Maoists and earlier a similar incident took place at Sagulu in 2012. “And the way the things are going, it will again happen in the near future,” he said.
The Maoists were resorting to double standards. On one hand they are motivating the Girijans to fight against the proposed bauxite mining and on the other had they are supporting laterite mining, he said.
“Roads are the key element for development and they are opposing it. This shows their double standards,” he said.
According to the SP, the Maoist movement has been on the downswing and it will totally die down in the district, if the three main leaders Bakuri Venkat Ramana, Kudumula Ravi and Chalapathi surrender.
He claimed that the Thursday public meeting was held somewhere on the Odisha side of AOB and not in Sileru as reported.