Sukma/Dantewada/Jagdalpur: Heading to his Burkapal village after spending five years, two months and seven days in prison, 43-year-old Sodi Nanda knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was acquitted by a special NIA court a week ago in the 2017 Sukma Maoist attack in which 25 CRPF jawans were ambushed. Nanda, tired of being choked by the concrete walls of his cell, was now a free man.
As he reached his village in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, Nanda headed towards the forest – and continued until he found the tart orange fruit, kosam.
“I used to dream of walking in the woods, plucking fruit and squeezing it in my mouth.” Nanda said that when we had gone to Burkapal to meet 37 tribal men acquitted of all charges.
These people, many of whom are the sole breadwinners of their households, have been saving their lives since coming out of the Jagdalpur Central Jail on July 17, two days after the acquittal of 121 tribals involved in the 2017 attack.
Twenty-seven-year-old Hemla Joga is having an affair with her daughter Sunita, who was in her mother’s womb when she was arrested five years ago.
His elder brother Madkam Singa, similarly arrested and acquitted, has been inspecting the village since his return. “I noticed that some of the huts are gone. Some trees have grown. When I got off the bus I asked- ‘Is this my village?'” said Singha.
Sodi Kesa, 37, always complained about the watery dal whenever his wife used to visit him in jail. When they returned home last week, they were greeted with a desi cock feast.
A young Madkam Bheem came home to see that his wife had married another man and went to Andhra Pradesh. “He also took my Aadhar card and passbook,” said Bheem as the elderly men around him patted him and assured him of finding a wife soon.
Everyone in Burkapal village, the site of the 2017 Maoist attack, has a story to tell – of huts washed away in the rain, sons dropping out of school to feed families, wives jailing husbands for selling their cattle. parents are passing away without saying goodbye to their sons, and babies are being taken to prisons to be introduced to their fathers.
He has a collective memory, lost of years – and of being ‘implicated’ in a terrorist attack by the Chhattisgarh Police, he says, had nothing to do with it.
Read also: The latest war against Naxalites is absurd. Go visit Bastar, a war is already going on
wait, test, acquit
On 24 April 2017, a battalion of 70 CRPF personnel guarding the construction of a bridge on the Dornapal-Jagargunda road was ambushed and killed by a group of 250 Maoists, barely 100 meters from Burkapal village. dropped. The attack killed 25 personnel and injured seven others. A total of 125 tribals, including a woman and three minors, were arrested from 28 villages in three districts of two states (Bijapur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh and Bhupalpally in Telangana).
In addition to several IPC sections, the Chhattisgarh Police added charges against the tribals under the Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act, and later the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act.
For four years, the matter remained in Jagdalpur NIA Court without hearing. And UAPA meant that tribals could not get bail.
“In these four years, more than 10 lawyers represented the accused, but the trial did not start,” said Bhima Podyami, associate lawyer for Sukma-based lawyer Bichum Pondy. The day we met Bhima at the Dantewada court, nine tribals were acquitted in a separate terror case.
“There is a pattern here – vague investigations, retaliatory arrests and cover-ups by the police,” he said.
As soon as Bichum and Bhima got involved in the case, things started moving forward. The case reached court in May 2021, charges were framed in June and witnesses were summoned by the first week of July. The accused tribals were presented in court in groups of 10 to 15 and hearings would be held every week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
About a year later, on 15 July 2022, 121 tribals were liberated. While one undertrial, Dodi Mangaloo, died in jail on 2 October 2021, the remaining three – all juveniles – are out on bail. “The prosecution has failed to establish whether the accused were active members of Naxal groups or were involved in the crime. The prosecution could not prove that the police had seized arms or bombs from the accused,” said Special Judge Deepak Kumar Deshalere.
Read also: BJP’s sweet nexus with Maoists in Chhattisgarh is thriving despite leaders’ murders, arrests
‘framed’; IG said ‘not innocent’
“I am not a Naxalite.” Lying in a cot far away, 40-year-old Muchaki Mukka screams from the top of his lungs.
Mukka was arrested in 2018 on charges of a bomb blast in which his wife was seriously injured. In prison, according to his youngest son Muchaki Nanda, “he was also implicated in the 2017 case”.
“We fight two battles every day. One with the Naxalites and the other with the armed forces,” Muchaki said. “Both consider us supporters of opposing parties. We were miles away from the village when Naxalites attacked CRPF five years ago. We gathered in the forest to celebrate our local festival Beej Panadum (tree deity),” said Nanda.
In the 2010 case, 10 tribals spent nearly three years in jail before a fast track court acquitted them in 2013. Bichum Pondy was still the defense lawyer then.
“Fearing violence in the state after the attack, the men had fled to Andhra. Only women, children and the elderly were left behind. The police started giving messages that they would offer jobs and not arrest and that the tribals should return,” says Sodi Kesa with dismay. He was one of those who returned only to be carried away by the police in the bus. Some never came back, only the news of their death under mysterious circumstances came.
For the Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj Pattilingam, the acquittal could end the trial for the accused villagers, saying “the case is not yet closed”. “We are still probing the case against 139 absconding Naxals under Section 173(8) of CrPC,” he said.
The IG insisted the police to respect the court’s order saying that they do not consider the villagers innocent.
“They work as militia cadres for the Naxalites. Either under pressure or under compulsion or in fear, the Naxalites become a support network. They provide them shelter, act as surveillance teams, cook food for them, help them cut trees to block nearby camps, while they carry out deadly attacks on security forces,” the officer alleged.
The villagers have denied the allegation. “We did not flee as we had something to do with the attack. We ran out of panic. We wanted to avoid state violence,” said Kesa Nanda, who was arrested along with her son. “We are villagers. We were also shocked to hear the news of the attack.”
Madkam Bhima echoed the same. “For no reason, they put us in prison for five years.”
Sodi Kesa said that he had been living in Andhra Pradesh for a long time, but had to return in 2016 when his father passed away. “Within a year, I was booked for conspiring against the security forces. I only do agricultural work,” he said.
Read also: I feed a surrendered Naxalite mutton, liquor, track down his lady. Dantewada is not Delhi
back home, a taste of freedom
The tribals, who had left Jagdalpur Central Jail in the afternoon on the evening of July 17, reached Burkapal and landed on the grounds of the same government school from where they had been raised five years ago.
They are now ready to put everything behind. “We will maintain cordial relations with Saheb in the security camps. Our fields are nearby,” said the tribals in unison.
His family was waiting for his return. When they arrived, the women washed their feet with fresh water. The next day, a party was thrown for his freedom.
But the real taste of freedom came when they were served local mahua, mutton and pork.
(edited by Prashant)