This is the second article in a two-part series on the aftermath of the reported killings of 40 ‘Naxals’ in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. You can read the first article here.
Gadchiroli district (Maharashtra): It was a wedding that saved the residents of Kasansur village in Gadchiroli from being killed or injured in the ambush set by the police’s C-60 commandos on the morning of April 22.
The “encounter” between alleged Naxals camping outside the village and the police left 34 “Naxals” dead. If not for the wedding, the village’s young men and women would have been where the Naxals were camping on the banks of Indrawati river when the alleged encounter took place. “When they (Naxals) summon us, we have to oblige. There is no choice. That morning too, we were called. But as we were getting ready for a wedding ceremony in the village, we were exempted. The wedding saved our lives,” said 35- year old Lachchu Matte Wadavi.
It’s a miracle, they all agree.
But though they are safe this time round, the dilemma the villagers of Kasansur face is fairly typical of how life is, and has been like, for decades in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, especially within the forest range of Gadchiroli, under a constant threat from both the police and the Naxals.
Tucked in the remotest parts of the dense forest, where they eke out a living picking Tendu leaves, the villagers here have very little access to the outside world, making their lives very vulnerable. Human rights violations have been recorded from time to time, both at the hands of the state and the armed rebels. Several locals that The Wire spoke to described the hardship they suffer regularly. Despite the severity of the situation, no respite seems to be in sight.
In the wee hours of April 22, Naxals gathered close to the village had sent a message asking the villagers to participate in the meeting. Such meetings, they say from their earlier experiences, are arranged each time a leader camps in and around the village to discuss issues that affect them. “They are benign; they don’t threaten us. They only ask us to be present and share our grievances,” said an elderly woman in Madiya, the local tribal language, as her son translated it into Marathi.
But, she said, the whole idea of going and meeting them is daunting. “As it is, the police look at us as supporters of the movement. And then to attend the meetings puts us in a spot,” she added. Another villager, Mangu Kudme added, “If we turn down the summons, that act is looked at as betrayal.” There have been instances of Naxal groups gunning down villagers for ‘betraying’ them.
Credit: Ita Mehrotra
Kasansur village has been making headlines for the past week since the police shot down 34 people they claimed to be “dreaded Naxals”. It has now emerged that at least eight of them killed or injured in the ambush were teenage boys and girls from nearby Gattepalli, who had apparently set out to attend this very wedding.
This sleepy village is not new to the police’s presence or Naxal activities. A few men from the village joined the arms movement several years ago. It takes a little over two hour bike-ride through dense forest from Bhamragad division of Gadchiroli on a mud road to reach here and the uneven pathway makes the journey accident-prone. Spread on a large expanse of forest land, Kasansur is home to 32 families, all belonging to the Madiya tribe.
The presence of armed commandos, gunshots, sudden raids and cordoning off of the area is a way of life in this region. Every village in the area has at least one instance to quote of extrajudicial killings or a fake surrender after terming them as Naxals.
According to Gadchiroli Superintendent Abhinav Deshmukh, over 2,000 rounds of shots were fired at the “Naxals” hiding here on April 22. The villagers claimed the figure is not even half as much as they heard that morning. “It felt like crackers were bursting for over six hours,” a resident told us.
That evening, the commandos were seen drinking and dancing to Hindi and Marathi songs celebrating their “success”.
Kasansur and the adjacent Boriya village share the banks of the river Indravati. The narrow pathway from Boriya village to the river is more accessible than from Kasansur – the police therefore used the residents of the former as free labour to drag the bodies out of the river. On April 23, a day after the firing, residents from Boriya village said a search operation was launched by C-60 commandos along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
“They came in large numbers and asked us to go to the river. They asked us to drag the bodies out and lay them next to each other. In all, 17 bodies — two on the April 22 and the rest on the April 23 – bodies were brought out by the villagers,” said Ramu Gawade, a member of the local Gram Sabha. The 18th body was found on April 28, the day this correspondent was visiting.
The residents of Boriya village were forced to drag the bodies from Indravati river. In all 34 ‘Naxals’ were killed on April 22. Credit: Sukanya Shantha/The Wire
The river is infested with crocodiles and Gawade said this made the search operation difficult. “We had no idea how many bodies were there. We kept diving in and dragging bodies out one after the other. Several bodies were severed and had been eaten by the crocodiles.”
The villagers claim to have protested against the police’s demand to fish out the bodies. “It is terrible thing to look for dead bodies in the water we use every day. When we said we can’t do this work, they threatened us. Some of us had to give in,” a villager identifying himself as Raju, said. Gawade alleged that one of the two bodies he had dragged was of a “young girl” and was found without any clothes. “Her face and head had bullet wounds. The body had no clothes. This was the only body found without clothes,” Gawade claimed.
On April 28, when The Wire visited Boriya, some villagers had got into an argument with the police. Eventually they succeeded in defying the police’s order and refused to participate in the search operation any further.
Since the attack, the village has been converted into a camping area for the C-60 commandos and CRPF. Helicopters hover around the village, keeping a close eye on who enters and leaves the village. These helicopters, the villagers claim, were also used to carry a few reporters, who had travelled with the police from Nagpur. “They came with the police and left with them. They did not stop by at the village to ask us what has been happening here for years,” 45- year old Matte Wadavi told us.
While this reporter was conversing with the villagers inside the Ghotul – a central space where all important discussions are held and decisions taken, the commandos walked in to inquire her presence in the village. A commando who identified himself as PSI Dhabade insisted on participating in the discussion. The villagers dispersed in no time. Dhabade and other officers prevented this reporter and the local zilla parishad representative Lalsu Soma Nagoti – who had helped arrange the visit – from travelling further into to forest. “This is a protected area and outsiders can’t be allowed in,” he announced.
Intelligence from within the Naxals?
The police claimed to have carried out a “perfect ambush” due to the well-coordinated intelligence inputs that was received a day before the killings. This information, sources in the state intelligence department claim, came from within the Naxal groups.
“It was an internal sabotage. We had received information on April 20 about the camp and about the presence of high ranking ultras. Around 120 commandos entered the area from Pengunda village in Bijapur district, Chattisgarh,” the official told The Wire. In the morning, when the Naxals had gathered for breakfast and had supposedly kept their guns aside, the commandos allegedly launched the attack. “The commandos were on a higher plain. That helped them in precise attacks. Sixteen people were killed at the spot, the rest, mostly injured, jumped into the river,” an officer from Gadchiroli’s Anti-Naxal Operation squad claimed.
Kasansur village. Credit: Sukanya Shantha/The Wire
Three crucial commandos of the Naxal groups – Sainath alias Dolesh Madhi Atram (32), the alleged commander of Permelli Dalam (who, according to the police, was recently elevated as the divisional committee member) from Gattepalli, division committee (popularly known as ‘DVC’) rank level member Naxal Srinu alias Srinath, and Nandu – were among those killed in the ambush. While the first two were killed at Indravati river, Nandu and five others were shown as killed at a nearby Kapewancha area in Rajaram Khandla forest on April 23.
According to the police, a similar situation arose the next day when Nandu and five others were allegedly hiding in Jimalgatta village in Aheri Taluka, around 100 kilometres from where the initial encounter occurred. These six “Naxals” too were allegedly armed but were caught unaware when the police opened fire, according to police sources. The identities of over 20 of the 40 killed yet to be ascertained.
Questions have been raised about the Jimalgatta firing and according to testimonies gathered from a village near Kasansur, Nandu, Shrinu and Sainath had taken shelter in a village nearby a day before they were killed. The district administration has also questioned the manner in which this encounter was carried out and has ordered two separate inquires.
A 21- year man, who had apparently allowed the three to stay at his house, spoke to The Wire on the condition of anonymity. His identity and the village details have been withheld at his request. “Nandu, Shrinu and Sainath came to my place around April 21 morning and stayed over till late night. I was asked to offer them food. They slept in one room,” he told this reporter, pointing at the separate room built near his house in the village. According to him, the three men were armed. Nandu had an self-loading rifle (SLR) and the other two had carried Ak-47s. “All three had left my place late in the evening. They planned to rest at Kasansur before moving towards Bijapur the following day. I was summoned too,” he claimed. “I had some other work. Also, I was afraid to go there. So, I decided to not attend the meeting,” he added.
He further claimed to have been summoned to the spot of the firing on April 22 night to help transport a 21- year old injured girl to Bijapur. “Her head had been grazed by a bullet. She was injured, but not severely. She wore army fatigues and was unarmed. She told me her name is Munni,” he claimed. He added that he drove her for over two hours to a village in Bijapur district. “I was only given the task to leave her there. Her journey was to be completed with local help there,” he added. According to him, another person was assigned the work of transporting another Naxal who had a bullet lodged in his ankle. “I do not know where he was taken to. He was injured and in pain.”
As the example of Kasansur and other villages in Gadchirolli shows, in the ‘war’ between those identified as Naxals and therefore as enemies of the state, and the police, the locals who end up as collateral damage. Even if they are not killed, the remain vulnerable to the demands and pressure from both sides.