Three days on, cops yet to reach Dadapur arson spot for probe

Gadchiroli: Contrary to what the state director general of police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal had said at Gadchiroli on Thursday about the police morale not being affected, a stark reality was encountered when TOI visited Dadapur village where Maoists had torched 27 vehicles and two camp site offices of a Chhattisgarh-based road construction company on May 1.
Three days after the incident, security forces are yet to reach the spot, barely four km from Purada police station, for investigation.
Villagers said around 100-150 Maoists were at Dadapur for around three hours on Tuesday night. They woke up drivers and supervisors of the company, forced them to empty their diesel tanks, and torched the vehicles one after another along with the camp site office. While one group torched vehicles, another put up banners across the place.
Around two dozen banners, condemning the BJP-led government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, guardian minister Ambrishrao Atram, can be seen around the village. Police have not removed them as they generally do elsewhere.
“There is so far no response from the police department. The cops did not even come for inquiry or questioning,” said a resident from Dadapur.
The banner, one of them also hailing the “sacrifice” of slain divisional committee member Ramko and another, was also left untouched by the police. Ramko and a woman cadre were killed in a police encounter last week when they tried to ambush C-60 commandos.
Sources in the district stated that the police department is not visiting Dadapur and not removing banners probably out of fear of another ‘call ambush’ trap like at Lendhri nullah where 15 Quick Response Team (QRT) personnel and another civilian driver were killed when they were headed to the site of arson later in the day.
“The Maoists are known to use banners as traps as any attempt to remove them can trigger blasts of pressure bombs planted around. IEDs could have been planted inside the village too, which the Maoists might trigger when the cops come,” said another source in the district.
Dadapur, which is flanked by forested hillocks, is considered a safer zone for the Maoists but there had been no major incidents in the past.
Sources in the village stated that Dadapur is strategically located for the Maoists to launch an attack. The thick vegetation cover of the hillock is flanked by forests of Narekal-Bedgaon on the left, Khobramenda on the right and also Tippagarh in the north, which makes it viable for the Reds to escape or make retreat after an attack.
DIG, Naxal range, Ankush Shinde and SP Shailesh Balkawade did not respond to repeated calls or messages from TOI.
A punishment for forces: Social media msg
A message on social media, posted by ‘Lal Salam’, claimed the blast at Lendhri nullah, around six km from Kurkheda in north Gadchiroli, that killed 15 QRT jawans and one civilian driver on May 1 was a ‘punishment’ for the security force for last year’s ‘massacres’ of ‘Dalit’ and ‘tribal’ comrades at Kasnasur and Nainer.
The user had titled the piece as ‘From silence to uproar — It’s OK when you kill the poor’. The piece is possibly linked to the encounter deaths of 40 Maoist cadres at two encounters on April 22 and 23 last year. In one hour, the post had got three ‘likes’.