A 13-member fact-finding team that visited Chintalnar, Morapally, Timmapuram and Tadmetla villages of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh has found that the police claim that they had an encounter with Maoists in the jungles of Dantewada during March second week as “a hoax and far from reality.” “We have been inside these areas for two days, only to see that there was no ‘encounter' with Maoists as claimed by the police, which...

The Supreme Court has directed food commissioners N C Saxena and Harsh Mandar to visit three interior villages of Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district along with the collector. This comes on a day when a delegation of 10 Congress MLAs made a bid to reach the villages but were turned back citing 'security concerns', 50 kilometres short of their destination. The three villages - Tadmetla, Morepalli and Teemapuram - have been in the...

Takes suo motu cognisance of the March 23 report published by The Hindu NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking suo motu cognisance of the March 23 report published by The Hindu on murders, violence and rape in a Chhattisgarh village, has sought a report within two weeks from the Union Home Secretary, Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police (DGP). Agnivesh attacked Social Activist Swami Agnivesh, who was attacked...

Collector, Senior Superintendent of Police transferred following reports of torching of villages A large group comprising Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the Chhattisgarh police and members of the Salwa Judum attacked social activist Swami Agnivesh on Saturday as he attempted to deliver relief to a village allegedly torched by security forces in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. On March 23, The Hindu published reports and photographs alleging that SPOs had torched about 300 homes,...

Three women assaulted, three men killed, hundreds rendered homeless in course of five-day operation The operation began in the early hours of March 11 when about 350 heavily armed troopers marched into the forests of Dantewada. They returned to their barracks five days later, with three villages aflame, about 300 homes and granaries incinerated, three villagers and three security personnel dead, and three women sexually assaulted, the victims and several...