Telangana forest officer attacked by mob booked under SC/ST Act

A tribal woman has lodged complaint under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against a forest range officer who was attacked by a mob in Telangana on June 30.

Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader Koneru Krishna Rao allegedly led the mob that assaulted Chole Anitha, the officer, when she had gone to Sarsala in Komaram Bheem Asifabad along with other officials of her department for a tree plantation programme.

Nayini Saroja, a tribal woman from Sarsala, on Sunday lodged a police complaint accusing Anitha and 15 of her colleagues of abusing them “by taking their caste name”.

“Based on her complaint, we booked Anitha and 15 other forest department staff under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” said deputy police superintendent Satyanarayana.

Anitha said she had yet to receive a copy of the first information report filed in the case and that her colleagues informed her that she had been booked. She denied the allegations against her and said she had not abused anybody. “I was unarmed and was only doing my duty assigned to me to take up a plantation on the forest land,” she said.

Anitha termed the case baseless and added that it would not stand legal scrutiny. Anitha resumed her duties on Monday after undergoing treatment for the injuries she sustained in the mob attack. She has been given police protection as she feared for her life.

“Three days ago, the police department provided me with security with four constables in two shifts. From today, it has been reduced to one plus one,” she said.

A purported video showed Rao, whose brother Koneru Konappa is a TRS lawmaker, beating up Anitha and her colleagues with sticks. He later resigned as the vice-chairman of a local body and was subsequently arrested along with 13 others.

As news spread of Anitha being booked under the SC/ST Act, several forest officials took to microblogging site Twitter in protest.

The Indian Forests Services Association released a statement saying, “ In most of the states, Frontline staffs are unarmed and where they are armed , DFOs lack Magisterial Power to issue directions to use them.’’

First Published: Jul 09, 2019 00:03 IST