Police atrocities on tribal people in Koraput Disrict

K. Sudhakar Patnaik

The houses of the tribals were ransacked and many young men were picked up and assaulted brutally in CRPF camp at Malkangiri.


Operation ‘Green Hunt’ has been intensified by the Paramilitary forces, in Malkangiri district, Orissa. According to the official source of information the primitive KOYA tribe which populated the village of Pitakonda under Chintalwada Panchayat of Malkangiri district was rounded up by the central Para military forces on 11th June 2010 at about 4.30 am. The houses of the tribe were ransacked, money and and also picked up young men and assaulted them brutally in CRPF camp at Malkangiri. They made them unfit to even walk.

On 12th June, Sarapancha of Chintalwada, Haribandhu Hantal along with other villagers went to Malkangiri police station to ask about the people picked from the village. The police did not even spare the elected Sarpancha and put him in police lock up and later sent him to judicial custody on 14the June 2010. Later, four out of six of those who are under CRPF custody, have been released and the other two persons Irma Kawasi and Budra Padiami have also been sent to judicial custody, initiating number of criminal cases against them and treating them as Naxals.

The four released people told over phone to this correspondent that the police covered their faces with black cloth and tied their hands and they were not allowed to eat food. There is must be a probe on the brutality of the police. This incident itself proves that there is no law of the land prevailing in tribal populated villages in Koraput district in Orissa state.