VISAKHAPATNAM:  Human Rights Forum (HRF) demanded a murder case be filed against Special Operations Group (SOG) and District Voluntary Force (DVF) personnel, involved in killing of five Maoists near Kituba village in Badel panchayat of Koraput district in Odisha on May 8. VS Krishna, the coordination committee member of HRF of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and K Sudha, the HRF Andhra Pradesh State General Secretary said on Friday a HRF fact-finding team visited Kituba village on June 6 and spoke to residents of the area. 

“We were able to ascertain there is no truth in the official version that a combined team of the SOG and DVF came across the Maoists in the Badel forests and the Naxals initially opened fire and the security forces retaliated in self-defence leading to the death of five Maoists,” the duo said.

What in fact took place on May 8 was a Maoist squad had asked villagers of Kituba for food. At about 1 pm, they took food to the grove and before the Maoists could eat it, the SOG and DVF, numbering over 20 personnel, opened fire, killing five Maoists. There was no exchange of fire for about an hour as claimed by the police, nor was any warning given to the Maoists to surrender. The firing was unilateral and intended to kill, they said. 

The case must also be handed over to either the CBI or a criminal investigation team, independent of the State police, the HRF leaders said. It has become a well established practice for security forces to hunt down Maoists even if the possibility of apprehension exists, as if they are wild game. The HRF an insurgency does not mean that violence be used as an excuse by the State to disregard and violate human rights. 

Therefore, “we urge the Odisha government to ensure that the police are made accountable and they function within the ambit of the law fully respecting the people’s rights and the law of the land. It must stop viewing the Maoist movement as a “mere crime”.