President Pranab Mukherjee is said to have expressed his displeasure and concern over the slow progress of inquiry into the alleged massacre of 20 tribal people, including seven children, in the age group of 12-14 years, in the anti-Maoist operation carried out by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos at Karseguda village of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh on June 28 last.
According to social activist Swami Agnivesh, the President conveyed this to him on Monday when the former met him here at Rashtrapati Bhavan to complain about Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt’s “dereliction of duty and failure” to keep Mr. Mukherjee informed about various incidents in the State, including the rape of school girls by a teacher and a watchman.
Seeking the sacking of the Governor for not bothering to visit the affected places or sending his report to the President as per Schedule 5 of the Constitution, Swami Agnivesh pointed out to him that though three inquiries — one by the local subdivisional magistrate, another by the CRPF’s internal probe, and a judicial probe by the State government — had been ordered into the merciless firing incident, nothing had come out of them.
Even seven months after the incident, the tribal people were yet to get justice, the social activist told The Hindu , adding that his organisation was planning to move the Supreme Court in this regard soon.
The Combined Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) team of the CRPF had carried out the raid/firing where 20 persons were killed, none of them Maoists. One victim was a small boy who was shot in the legs and then brutally murdered, Swami Agnivesh said. He described the incident as a “false encounter.”
“It is most pathetic and shameful that the post-mortem of the victims’ bodies had not been conducted at all,” he said. Chief Minister Raman Singh has also not visited the affected families.
