The human cost of fake encounters

John Dayal

A bullet kills a man, shatters a family, and adds to the triumphal statistics of a government totaling up the number of “Maoists” it has eliminated in its “Red Corridor” extending from the borers of Nepal to deep into Andhra Pradesh in south India.

The tragedy is compounded as Central and State governments pretend deafness when civil society challenges the “fake encounter”, a euphemism for cold blooded extra judicial execution by the armed police, and the country’s much wonted judicial system cannot intervene to examine the circumstances in which a bunch of young men me their death in such a brutal manner.

This is one such story, narrated by the brother of one of those killed, and a harried activist who sees his own son abducted by the police soon after he cries for justice for the dead innocents. It is also the frustration of national civil society activists and specially those of Orissa who have failed to rouse the conscience of chief ministers, governors and heads of various commissions dealing with human rights issues.

As news reports curtly detailed one morning, five men, described as Maoists, were shot dead in an encounter with the security forces in Gajapati district of Odisha on November 14, 2012. They were identified as  Aiba Padra, 35 years of age, of Bujuli village in Gadhapur panchayat, Shyamson Majhi, 50, of Bhingiriguda in Saramuli panchayat, Ghasiram Bagsingh, 33, of Mardhipanka village, Saramuli panchayat and Sanathan Mallick, 27, of Gaheju village in Hatimunda panchayat. All four villages are in Daringbadi block of Kandhamal district in the jurisdiction of the Brahmanigaon police station.

Dandapani Mohanty,  one of interlocutors along with Prof. Hargopal and Prof. R.S. Rao during the Government and Maoists’ peace talk process when Vineel Krishna, the then Malkangiri Collector, was abducted by Maoists, said the killings took place even as negotiations with the director general of police over implementation of  the past agreement were still under way.

On 30^th November, 2012, various civil rights organizations organized a demonstration and dharna in front of Odisha Assembly with the widows of the dead men, demanding a judiciary enquiry into the incident. The chief minister refused to meet the delegation.

Instead, police abducted Mohanty’s son. in a letter to the chief minister, Mohanty said “in a surprising move, on 5^th December, 2012, at the time around 10 am, when my only son Sangram Mohanty, an engineer and government contractor,  was returning from the garage after dealing with repair works of our trucks, the police in civil dress forcefully kidnapped him from Berhampur. In afternoon I knew from various TV channels that my son was arrested by police from Kamalapur of Mohana block area allegedly with arms and ammunitions and later forwarded to R. Udaygiri jail at 2 o’clock night. Though our family members and advocate tried to meet him police did not allow them at both Mohana Police Station and R. Udaygiri jail.”

Human rights activist VS Krishna and writer and social activist Deba Ranjan Sarangi  who led a fact-finding mission said “On the basis of our enquiries we state emphatically that all five of the deceased are not armed Maoist cadre but civilians. They did not die in an encounter but were murdered by the police. The version of the police that a combing party of the Special Operations Group and District Voluntary Force were fired upon on the forenoon of November 14 by Maoists in the Baliguda forest area of Gobindapur panchayat (on the Gajapati-Ganjam border) in the jurisdiction of the Mohana police station following which they returned the fire in self-defense resulting in the death of 5 Maoists is nothing but a blatant falsehood.”

Their enquiries found all five killed were civilians and unarmed. They were farmers who were leading completely over-ground lives. While three of them, Aiba Padra, Shyamson Majhi and Sanatan Mallick were adivasis of the Kondh tribe, Ghasiram Bagsingh and Laxmi Kanta Nayak were Scheduled Castes belonging to the Pano community. Ghasiram Bagsingh, Shyamson Majhi and Aiba Padra were also social activists.

Aiba Padra of Bujuli had some land on which he raised ginger and turmeric. His wife Ranjita is an anganwadi worker in the village and they have a 6-year-old son who studies at the Good Shepherd School in Brahmanigaon. Aiba was employed with an NGO Orissa Health and Medical Research Institute for which he was filling in details of the government’s socio-economic and caste census. He was, according to residents of the village, quite concerned about the development of the area. According to Ranjita, Aiba was driving her and their son on his motorbike from Brahmanigaon on November 12 when he said that there was some work he had to attend on and would be back the next day. He dropped them off en-route Bujuli and that was the last she saw him alive.

Shyamson Majhi of Bhingiriguda was a much-respected man. He was president, since 2004, of a local committee formed by the people and was quite active in issues like exposing panchayat raj corruption and laying of roads to remote villages. He had unsuccessfully contested for the Saramuli sarpanch’s post in 2006. On November 13, Shyamson asked his brother Judhistir, a government teacher, for his motorcycle saying he had to go to Daringbadi to seek legal help for 11 of their associates who were being implicated in a false case by Karma Patmajhi and their associates. That was the last his wife Sikko Alu Majhi saw him. The couple has two sons, one of who is mentally challenged.

Sanatan Mallick of Gaheju was a farmer who raised ginger and paddy. He was also a pastor his village church. He and his wife Mamita, an anganwadi helper, also ran a small kirana shop in the village. They have two daughters. According to the village residents, he was a good man and of a helpful nature. He would often speak in terms of doing the right thing. The last time Mamita saw him alive was on November 13^th when he left home in the morning saying he would return the next day.”

Ghasiram Bagsingh of Mardhipanka was by all accounts an exceptionally dynamic activist. He was elected panchayat samiti member in the 2006 polls and was quite well known in the area. Apart from some farming, he also did small construction contracts. He was the leader of the anti-corruption crusade in the panchayat that resulted in the sarpanch getting arrested. He, along with people like Shyamson Majhi took out an impressive rally at Daringbadi on October 12 seeking action against not just the sarpanch but also all those who were involved in the rice misappropriation and other illegalities. Ghasiram was driving the bike with Shyamson pillion riding on November 13th when they left for Daringbadi. This is the last seen of both of them alive.

How the deaths of these men, caught in the political crossfire between the government and the Maoist, have impacted their families is best told in the words of Ghasiram’s only brother Pramod. Pramod is a Catholic scholar, currently   a member of the community of Silesians of Don Bosco, studying philosophy in Karunapuram Warangal, Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to some friends, he said “Karma Majhi, the Sarpanch of our panchayat is the dealer who sells ration rice to the locality. He is supposed to give to the people whatever comes from the Government but in reality he is selling away secretly the store and telling the innocent people no stock. It has been taking place number of times. People in their innocence went to my brother Ghasiram Bagsingh, a well-known person in the locality who always fought for justice. He was also a member of Daringbadi Block  council. Together with the people my brother went to police station to fail a case against the Sarpanch for cheating the people. The police responded immediately and arrested him. Later they had a rally in the block in the presence of B.D.O and Tahsildar.

“The sarpanch got bail complained to the Naxalites about my brother and four other innocent men.  The Maoists gave a letter to my brother telling him to come for meeting in the forest near Baliguda. The nature of the Naxalites of this place is that nobody should know what is happening in the place other than the people concerned. If at all the news is leaked they would come and kill the person responsible.

“The sarpanch who informed the Maoists, also informed the police  who went to the place where meeting is conducted and shot all five.  The question is whether they were shot on their way to the meeting spot or on their return journey or just called and shot. These questions remain unanswered. The whole incident was arranged by the sarpanch.

“My brother Ghasiram Bagsingh was married to Laxmi and had four children, two boys and two girls studying in different hostels aging from 9 to 3 years. His wife is housewife. Now I am in a dilemma what to do about them. I am in the seminary. I am only male at home. I have five sisters of whom two are married and three are studying in hostels. My family needs financial support very badly. We have filled case in the high court for the compensation and to get justice done for the family. So far nothing has happened.”

The media has not bothered about this family, or about the other five.

The government remains silent.

Civil society has also quietened down, frustrated as its efforts go unheeded,  and afraid they too may be targeted like Mohanty.

[First published in Indian Currents 10 Feb 2013]