CLC Demands Government Produce Maoists In Court

The Civil Liberties Committee (CLC) Telangana State President Laxman Gaddam and the Forrocks Association State Secretary today demanded that all Maoists currently in the custody of the Bijapur police be produced before a court.

According to them, villagers had reliably informed them that around ten Maoists had been taken into custody by the police at 7 am on June 25 last year in Parshagarh village, located in the National Park area of Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh. Those allegedly detained included Maoist Party Central Committee Member Sudhakar, Telangana State Committee Member Mailara Adellu alias Bhaskar, National Park Secretary Prakash alias Dilip, Madhya D Area Secretary Seatu Ramanna, DC Member Munna Sunitha Mahesh, and several others.

They alleged that although these individuals were taken alive, Sudhakar was killed five days later without any official record of his arrest. They also claimed that Namailarapu Adellu was shot dead on June 6.

"Although we issued a press release last Friday urging that the remaining Maoists be brought to court alive, we now see TV scrolls reporting that both Sudhakar and Adellu were killed in what is being described as an encounter on the morning of June 7," they said.

They also alleged that over the past 18 months, hundreds of activists and tribal people had been killed in similar police encounters. "Even those taken alive are not produced in court - they are tortured and killed in the name of encounters," they said.

They also accused the authorities of escalating the practice of extra-judicial killings. "In Parshagarh village, the government is torturing and killing those arrested one by one, then declaring each killing as an encounter," they said.

The CLC strongly opposed these actions and demanded that all detainees be produced in court. "The government must be held accountable for upholding the right to life. People must raise their voices against such encounter killings. The ongoing operation must be stopped. No law, no State, no democracy can justify these murders. People are not allowed to speak freely in our country any more. The fourth pillar - freedom of the press - has collapsed. Prime Minister Modi's media now represents the press. As a result, civil and democratic rights are under grave threat across the country," they said during a press conference.

They demanded that justice be served to the victims through an independent inquiry conducted by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, and also called on citizens to protest against these policies and stand up for democratic values.