Bodies of four killed in fake encounter exhumed

BIJAPUR, May 7 THE bodies of four tribal youths killed in an alleged fake encounter at Ponjer some eight kms from here on March 31, were exhumed and performed the post-mortem in the presence of senior administrative and police officials on Monday afternoon.

One of the slain youth was cremated at a place near the spot where four were buried. It may be recalled that tribal people from Ponjer were picked up by the Chhattisgarh Armed Force and SPOs, taken to a nearby village Santoshpur and later killed them. Sub-Divisional Magistrate Sadaram Thakur had requisitioned four doctors with two from Dantewada (Dr Gangesh and Dr Baghel) and one each from Bhopalpatnam and Bijapur namely Dr Pujari and Dr Thakur respectively for the post-mortem. Bijapur SP in-charge Narendra Kumar Khare, ASP Ahire, ASP (Bijapur) Ankit Garg, Bijapur SHO and the family members of the deceased were present at the spot. Accordingly, the bodies of Modium Lakhma (40), Modium Phagu (50), Madkam Sanku and Kodium Moosa (50) were exhumed. That of Madvi Mangu (30) was cremated. When the bodies were taken out of the grave, the family members could not control their grief and broke into tears. The relatives of a deceased, one of them woman, explained to the mediapersons after reaching the spot in Gondi language what had happened on March 31. The woman, Modium Soni is the paternal aunt of Phagu, who was killed along with four others in the fake encounter. She claimed that five persons from Ponjer namely Phagu, Madvi Mangu, Kudium Moosa, Modium Lakhma and Madkam Sanku were collecting the Mahuwa at Ponjer. The police picked them away to Santoshpur. Apart from them, the police also allegedly killed some more members of their family namely Madvi Lakhmi, Modium Mangali, Modium Budhari, Markam Ata and Modium Gorra. The villagers informed, alleged Soni, that the police took them to the jungles of Santoshpur and killed them. Talking to mediapersons, some villagers said that they had the information of the alleged murders of the five persons but in scare, did not report it to the police. They brought the bodies to Ponjer and buried four of them while one was cremated. ?We fled Ponjer village and reached Bijapur fearing our lives,? they said. Meanwhile, the officials refused to comment on the post-mortem report and they only said that the investigation was under way. Earlier, the police had obtained the consent of the family members of all the victims for exhuming the bodies. It is mandatory to obtain the consent of the family members of the deceased and the permission is given by the District Magistrate. Two days back, IGP (Bastar) R K Vij talking to The Hitavada said that the police team investigating the fake encounter case were trying to contact the family members of all the five youths killed in Ponjer on March 31. He admitted that the police team found Ponjer and its adjoining Santoshpur village deserted after reached there. According to him, efforts were on to locate them as also the family members of the deceased. DGP Om Prakash Rathor had ordered a probe into the alleged fake encounter on May 4 following allegations and reports appearing in the print and electronic media. Later, an investigation team under the leadership of Garg was constituted.
(Source: The Hitavada May 8, 2007)