The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Thursday said it has ordered an inquiry into the shocking recovery of uniforms, suspected to be that of troopers martyred in a recent Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh, in a garbage dump near a hospital in State capital Raipur.
Acting CRPF chief R.C. Tayal said the inquiry would be conducted by the Inspector General of the State and a report would be submitted soon.
“We have ordered an inquiry to find out how it happened. Serious action will be taken against the guilty. We suspect some political workers took these items from the lower staff in the hospital in Raipur. We are looking into it,” Mr. Tayal, who was in Raipur after the December 1 encounter, said.
14 CRPF personnel, including two officers, were killed in the encounter in Sukma district of the State on Monday.
Camouflaged pattern uniforms, like the one worn by CRPF troops in operations and jungle boots, were found lying in the garbage dump near Ambedkar Hospital in Raipur on Wednesday, sparking an outrage.
This is the same hospital were the autopsy of the slain soldiers was done after their bodies were flown-in on Tuesday from the site of the encounter in south Bastar’s Sukma.
Officials said these items, worn by combat soldiers, are handed over to local police as per procedure who register a case under sections of the IPC and they are called a “case property” and not even handed over to the next of kin.
“My message is that we have full respect for our martyrs. If I need to say sorry (to the families of those killed) I will do that. Normal process in such cases is that these (clothes and boots) are taken by the case investigating police officer. Let me get the details (of the inquiry) and we will take required action,” Mr. Tayal said.
Opposition Congress leaders had said the incident showed “insensitivity and disrespect” of the authorities and demanded an apology from the BJP government in the State.
District Congress chief Vikas Upadhyay had visited the hospital and took away the uniforms and other belongings of the jawans to the Congress office.
“We rushed there (to the hospital) after learning that the uniforms of the slain CRPF men were lying in a dustbin filled with garbage near the mortuary where their autopsies took place,” Mr. Upadhyay had said.
“We collected four sets of blood-stained uniforms and 10 pairs of shoes and carried those to Congress Bhawan. Later, CRPF officials came here and we handed over all the belongings to them,” he had said.
Dean of Ambedkar Hospital, Vivek Chaudhary had said that “After a post-mortem is performed, the viscera and other remains are preserved and not kept openly. The video that I saw (of the blood-stained uniforms left lying in the open) is very unfortunate.”
