The quest for justice in Chhattisgarh

The state government’s move to review cases against tribals is much needed

The Chhattisgarh government’s panel to “review cases against Scheduled Tribes and other residents of the Naxal region in the state” is set to begin work on October 30. The committee, led by a retired Supreme Court judge, will look into cases involving 16,475 tribals, accused by police in a range of cases, and another 6,743 being held as undertrials, mostly in Maoist-affected Bijapur, Sukma and Bastar districts, the Indian Express reported on Wednesday. The impoverished tribal community has been the collateral damage of the turf war between the State and the Maoists, who gained ground, thanks to years of governance deficit in the region. There have also been credible reports of atrocities by the security forces on the tribal community, especially the women. The conflict has led to not just physical violence but also has had a deep impact on tribal society, due to the atrocities of now-disbanded Salwa Judum (the government-backed anti-naxal vigilante group), conflict-affected migration to other states or to State-run camps.

One of the main State actors in the conflict has been the state police, which often arrested tribals on the suspicion of being Maoists. A 2016 study of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, revealed that 96% of the tribals arrested were acquitted by court, and that the three jails in the Bastar Division were crowded beyond capacity due to excessive number of arrests under fake cases. The state government’s decision to set up a panel could go a long way to restore the frayed trust between the State and the tribal community. But this move has to be followed up with better rollout of State welfare programmes, investigations into the atrocities and penalising the wrong doers, among other things.