CDRO has demanded the arrested Maoists to be produced in the court immediately, and a judicial enquiry must be carried out to investigate these alleged encounters.
Groundxero | June 08, 2025
The human right and civil liberty groups across the country has strongly condemned the extrajudicial killing of CPI (Maoist) leaders and cadres, many of whom are Adivasis, in alleged encounters carried out under the guise of counterinsurgency operations in Chhattisgarh. The groups have unequivocally asserts that no person, regardless of political affiliation or ideological stance, is beyond the protection of the law. Extrajudicial killings not only violate the right to life and due process, they erode the very foundations of a democratic society governed by the rule of law.
Over 430 individuals—including Maoists and civilians—have reportedly been killed by security forces in various alleged encounters in Bastar since January 2024. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has said that despite clear legal precedents, the ongoing Operation Kagar and its offshoots, Operation Sankalp and Operation Black Forest, have been marked by a disturbing pattern of indiscriminate killings and these operations reflect a systematic policy of extermination, circumventing the criminal justice system and flouting constitutional norms.
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), echoing what Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha had said in 2011, has alleged that these fake encounters are nothing but “cold-blooded, brutal murder by persons who are supposed to uphold the law”. CDRO has demanded the arrested Maoists to be produced in the court immediately, and a judicial enquiry must be carried out to investigate these alleged encounters.
CDRO has also demanded handing over the dead bodies of those killed to the families of the deceased after completion of official procedures. CDRO emphasized that the culture of fake encounters must be stopped, and the political issues must be resolved through dialogue with the Maoists. Also, the democratic rights activists and the common people should be allowed free movement to enable assessment of the ground reality.
The press statement by CDRO is published below.
COORDINATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS (CDRO)
PRESS RELEASE
8th June 2025
Produce the Maoists Activists In The Court Instead of Killing Them In Fake Encounters
For more than a year, the governments of Chhattisgarh and the central government have been on a killing spree. In the name of Operation Kagar, more than 550 persons have been killed since 2024, of whom a majority are Adivasis.
The Maoists, who have proved to be the biggest obstacle in the path of the government’s plan of opening up Chhattisgarh land for mining despite the persistent opposition of the Adivasis, are the target of the armed forces. Instead of treating the Maoists and their demands as a political issue and engaging in dialogue with them, the governments have overturned the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Maoists. A look at the recent series of alleged encounter killings will bring out the real intent of the government.
In January 2025, in a so-called encounter, Chalapathi, a member of the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist), was killed. Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, had posted on X, “Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat. The CRPF, SoG Odisha, and Chhattisgarh Police neutralised 14 Naxalites in a joint operation along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border.” (https://theprint.in/politics/blowing-up-police-stations-to-murders-of-mlas-the-life-of-slain-maoist-commander-chalapathi/2455759/).
In April, in the Lugu hills in the Lalpania area of Bokaro district of Jharkhand, Vivek, along with two other top Maoist leaders and five others, died in an exchange of fire with a joint team of the CRPF Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and the Jharkhand Jaguar.
In the last fortnight or so, several Maoist cadres, including a few top leaders of the Maoists, have been killed in alleged encounters. This includes Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraju, the General Secretary of the CPI (Maoists). According to the Inspector General, Bastar, Sundarraj, an intense battle took place in Abujhmad for 72 hours, leading to the death of 27 Maoists, including Basavaraju and “a large number of sophisticated weapons were recovered during the operation” (https://theprint.in/india/top-maoist-leader-basavraj-likely-among-27-killed-by-security-forces-in-chhattisgarhs-abujhmad/2632851/).
In the last three days, as per information available, seven Maoist leaders have been killed. On 5th June, Tentu Laxmi Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar was killed. This was followed by the killing of Mylarapu Adelu alias Bhaskar on 6th, and according to the information received by the Civil Liberties Committee (Telangana), one of the constituent members of the CDRO, two more Maoist leaders, Bandi Prakash and Papa Rao, were killed today (7th June). According to the press release issued by Bijapur superintendent of police Jitendra Kumar, at least five more bodies of suspected Maoists, including those of two women, were recovered from the forests of Indravati National Park in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday morning, amid an ongoing anti-Maoist operation. In each of these cases, the police claim to have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition, including two AK-47 rifles and explosive material.
According to a news report carried out by the Hindustan Times, “some security personnel sustained minor injuries due to snake bites, honeybee stings, dehydration, and other field-related causes, but all injured are reported to be stable and under medical care.” (https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/5-more-maoist-bodies-found-in-bijapur-s-indravati-park-amid-ongoing-operation-101749296797192.html). CDRO firmly believes that all these encounters are staged and fake. How else would one explain that intense firing took place over hours, sometimes days, lots of arms and ammunition were recovered, but deaths happened only to the Maoists, while the personnel belonging to the armed forces suffered from casual field-related troubles, as admitted by the police?
These alleged encounters are unconstitutional and violative of the Supreme Court judgment. In September 2014, a bench comprising of the then Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justice R F Nariman has opined “If pursuant to the tip-off or receipt of any intelligence, as above, encounter takes place and firearm is used by the police party and as a result of that, death occurs, an FIR to that effect shall be registered and the same shall be forwarded to the court under section 157 of the Code (CrPC) without any delay” (https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/what-supreme-courts-2014-judgment-says-on-encounter-killings-3945958). The judges had further said that an independent investigation into the incident/encounter shall be conducted by the CID or police team of another police station under the supervision of a senior officer (at least a level above the head of the police party engaged in the encounter). The judgment laid down the procedures to be followed by the investigating team. It had said the team conducting inquiry/investigation shall, at a minimum, seek to identify the victim, recover and preserve evidentiary material including blood-stained earth, hair, fibers and threads etc related to the death, identify scene witnesses and obtain their statements (including the statements of police personnel involved) and determine the cause, manner, location and time of death as well as any pattern or practice that may have brought about the death. The top court also said a magisterial inquiry under section 176 of the CrPC must invariably be held in all cases of death which occur in the course of police firing, and a report thereof must be sent to the judicial magistrate having jurisdiction under section 190 of the code. In the present situation, we did not find any of the procedures followed, which is a clear violation of the Supreme Court ruling.
Thus, CDRO echoes what Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha had said in 2011 that these fake encounters are nothing but “cold-blooded, brutal murder by persons who are supposed to uphold the law“.
Despite the Advocate General of Chhattisgarh having submitted to the Andhra Pradesh High Court that, after the completion of the post-mortem, they would be handed over to the relatives, the state machinery of Chhattisgarh did not hand over the body of the slain Maoist leader to his relatives and thereby prevented an honourable last rite to be performed by his relatives. This is violative of Article 21 of our Constitution and many international laws, as mentioned by Ms. Bela Bhatia.
We have also learnt that the police have earlier arrested ten Maoist leaders, including those slain in the last 3 days. Even now, those in police custody include divisional committee member Ramanna, national park area committee secretary Dilip, Dandakaranya area committee woman secretary Situ, and national park area committee members Sunita, Mahesh and Munna (https://thewire.in/rights/bijapur-encounter-maoists-killed-chhattisgarh-sudhakar-bhaskar). We fear that if these leaders are not produced in front of the court, they will be systematically eliminated in similarly staged encounters.
Hence, the CDRO demands:
- Arrested Maoists be produced in the court immediately.
- A judicial enquiry must be carried out to investigate these alleged encounters.
- The dead bodies of the Maoists killed must be preserved properly for conducting another round of post-mortem as a part of the judicial enquiry.
- Dead bodies must be handed over to the families of the deceased after completion of official procedures.
- This culture of fake encounters must be stopped, and the political issues must be resolved through dialogue.
- The democratic rights activists and the common people should be allowed free movement and enable assessment of the ground reality.
- Natural resources, water, forests and land, valuable mineral deposits should not be handed over to domestic and foreign multinational corporations. The eviction of tribals from the forests should be stopped.
(Asish Gupta)
(Tapas Chakraborty)
(Kranthi Chaitanya)
Coordinators, CDRO
Constituent Organisations of CDRO:
Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR, Punjab); Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR, Haryana), Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR, West Bengal); Asansol Civil Rights Association(West Bengal); Bandi Mukti Committee(West Bengal); Civil Liberties Committee (Andhra Pradesh); Civil Liberties Committee (Telangana); Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (Maharashtra); Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR TamilNadu); Coordination for Human Rights (Manipur); Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (Assam); Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights; Peoples’Committee for Human Rights (Jammu and Kashmir); Peoples Democratic Forum(Karnataka); Jharkhand Council for Democratic Rights (Jharkhand); Peoples Union for Civil Rights (Haryana), Campaign for Peace & Democracy in Manipur, Delhi; Janakeeya Manushyaavakasha Prasthanam, Kerala.