Chhattisgarh police are quietly probing the allegation that human rights activists such as Medha Patkar, Nandini Sundar and Arundhati Roy have links with Maoists.
Top bosses of the police have asked Senior Superintendent of Police, Dantewada, SRP Kalluri for details on the alleged links.
Kalluri had alleged in an unsigned statement issued to the media that Patkar, Sundar, Roy and Himanshu Kumar, director of a Dantewada-based NGO, had close links with Maoist leader Lingaram Kodopi, who led the July 6 attack on local Congress leader Awdhesh Gautam’s house, killing two persons.
“We need to find out the extent of the nexus as cited by the Dantewada SSP. The police will not spare anyone if they are found to be involved in any anti-state operation,” Inspector General of Police (Operations) Rajesh Mishra told HT.
He said they might even be treated as co-accused under the Chhattisgarh Special People’s Security Act for waging war against the state. Mishra, however, did not officially reveal the names of the suspects.
The Communist Party of India criticised the state police on Tuesday for arresting three of their men for being involved in the July 6 attack.
{{/usCountry}}The Communist Party of India criticised the state police on Tuesday for arresting three of their men for being involved in the July 6 attack.
{{/usCountry}}The police arrested seven people and also questioned a photojournalist, Javed Iqbal, who worked for Kumar’s NGO. The leader of the July 6 attack, Lingaram Kodopi, a former special police officer, once pleaded to Chhattisgarh High Court that the Dantewada police had forced him to become an SPO.