NAGPUR: Controversial IPS officer Shiv Ram Prasad Kalluri, whose tenure as the Inspector General (IG) of Police of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region saw large-scale human right violations and extra-judicial killings, was removed from his post on Tuesday.
Mr. Kalluri has now been attached to the State police headquarters in Raipur “without any charge.”
Last week, according to Mr. Kalluri, the State government had asked him to go on leave for “unspecified duration”, after the National Human Rights Commission came down heavily on some senior State officials during a recent meeting. He later claimed that he was going on leave on his “own terms”.
The government had sanctioned 90 days medical leave for the officer and had posted senior IPS officer P.Sundar Raj as Dantewada Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) with the responsibility of the Bastar range.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had said that Mr. Kalluri had “asked for medical leave and was granted”.
However, Mr. Kalluri reported back on duty at Jagdalpur district headquarters of Bastar range on Tuesday morning and asked Chhattisgarh Director General of Police A.N. Upadhyay for a posting.
“I have come back to Jagdalpur just now to join my wife and children. I have called DGP Shri. Amaranath Upadhyay and requested him to post me elsewhere. I prefer moving out voluntarily on my own,” Mr. Kalluri said in a social media post.
But denying him any posting, the State government attached him to the police headquarters in Raipur.
Santosh Mishra, the head of Chhattisgarh’s Directorate of Public Relations, said, “Since Mr. Kalluri has reported back without fully availing his medical leave... He has been attached to the police headquarters in Raipur with immediate effect, until further orders.”
According to sources, the government wanted to wait for three months to decide on sending Mr. Kalluri back to Bastar.
A senior government official, requesting anonymity, said, “Even the CM had said that he [Mr. Kalluri] had gone on medical leave for a kidney ailment. What Kalluri did on Tuesday was in open defiance of the State government. He seems to have got carried away by the propaganda launched by his anti-Maoist vigilante groups in his favor. But you don’t take the government for granted.”
The transfer of the police officer is likely to trigger protests and propaganda by anti-Maoist groups in Bastar, who flourished during Mr. Kalluri’s tenure. Many leaders of these groups were given official residence and would travel with Mr. Kalluri and senior police officers.
The groups were at the forefront of crackdown on activists, tribal leaders, journalists and human rights lawyers during Mr. Kalluri’s tenure. The police officer allegedly used the groups to launch attacks on journalists and activists who reported on extra-judicial killings and atrocities that took place in Bastar since July 2014.
However, the support for Mr. Kalluri’s return could increase if Bastar witnesses major incidents of Maoist violence in the next few months.
