In a 15-page fact-finding report, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has stated that there is a breakdown of discipline among security forces deployed on anti-Maoist operations in south Chhattisgarh. The report was the result of a probe by the NCST into three instances of mass sexual violence against Adivasi women—all hardscrabble subsistence farmers—including gangrapes, as well as assaults, and looting by the police and paramilitary forces, in the Bijapur and Sukma districts of the state. The violence reportedly took place in October 2015 (in Bijapur) and in January 2016 (in Bijapur and Sukma) by contingents deployed on anti-Maoist operations.
A three-member NCST team led by the commission’s chairperson Rameshwar Oraon visited Chhattisgarh between 3 and 5 April to probe the charges of violence. On 29 April, the commission finalised its report. It terms the investigations into the charges “unsatisfactory,” adding that “no progress has been made in identifying” the security personnel who attacked the women villagers. “The statements of all the complainants are yet to be recorded,” the report notes. The commission recommends that the investigation be taken away from the district police authorities, and handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department of the state, and suggests a judicial enquiry. The report stresses that, if the investigation is to be “credible,” these steps are essential.
The commission found that for all three cases, the district police had set up “special teams” of two or three members of police personnel to investigate the violence. However, despite the six months that had passed since the October complaint and the four months since the January ones, these teams have made no arrests, nor have they filed charge sheets.
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