Odisha: Three killed in Kalahandi ‘encounter’ innocent, had no Maoist link, say villagers

Jaya, along with his brother Arjun Majhi and three others, had reportedly gone looking for missing goats. While Arjun and another tribal boy, Pichu Majhi, were injured, Jaya, Hari Shankar and Shukru were shot dead by a 19-member team of the Special Operation Group (SOG).

Later, Kalahandi police claimed that four single-barrel muzzle-loader guns and kit bags with Maoist literature were recovered from them. After the incident, the district administration ordered a probe by an additional district judge, while Odisha Human Rights Commission called for a report from the DIG within four weeks.

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Dismissing police claims, Rasa Majhi said: “He never even fought with anyone… All that he did everyday was to go to the forests to collect firewood and sell it in the local market after trekking for two to three hours. On Sunday, he carried an axe. Who carries a gun and a kitbag to look for goats?”

Despite police claims of Maoist movement in the area, Jaya’s mother Gandari Majhi claimed she had never seen any Maoists near her village.

Hari Shankar’s younger brother accused the police of killing him cold blood.

“If he was helping Maoists as the police claimed, why would he venture in the morning when he can be seen clearly?” said Sadhu Nayak.

Ghasi Majhi, the teenaged son of Shukru Majhi — a marginal farmer who was also shot dead — said all that his father possessed was an axe. “I have never seen a gun in our house,” said Ghasi.

Refuting police claim of a crossfire, village elder Tema Majhi, who was close to the ‘encounter’ site at the time of the incident, claimed that he only heard staccato firing.

“We all hid for our safety. It was only after the two boys came out of the forest screaming, that we came to know about the killing,” he said.

Former Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das alleged that the encounter was a conspiracy to allow bauxite mining in the nearby hills.

“The tribals have been living in the forests for centuries. The police should have been careful in conducting the combing operation…The policemen who are responsible for the killing need to be punished,” said Das, who is planning a tribal meeting at Jugsaipatna on November 19.

Kalahandi SP Brijesh Rai, however, stuck to the police claim that kit bags and Maoist literature was found near the bodies.

“I am not saying they were Maoists. But they could be carriers for Maoist provisions. We had to fire after the Maoists fired at us. The villagers may have been killed during crossfire,” he said.

Locals, meanwhile, also expressed their anger over the way the bodies of the deceased were handled by the police.

“After postmortem, they did not even hand over the bodies and left them at a nearby village. We had to carry the bodies to our villages in makeshift cots,” alleged a villager, Sadhu Naik.

To protest the alleged killings, the Maoists have now called for a bandh in three blocks of Kalahandi district on November 20 and even demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation for the family members of those killed.