Staged Deaths in Palamau
A 2015 Maoist ‘encounter’ comes back to haunt the Jharkhand police
The Jharkhand police’s widely claimed ‘success’ in gunning down 12 Maoists in an encounter at Palamau’s Bokaria village in June 2015 has returned to haunt the state’s security establishment. M.V. Rao, an additional DGP who was summarily removed last month from the state CID while probing allegations that the encounter had been “staged”, now says he was transferred to thwart the investigation.
“There appears to be a conspiracy to cover up a big crime and to shield the culprits. My transfer within a month of posting as ADG (CID) was done with the malafide intention of scuttling an impartial probe of this case,” the officer said in a letter to the state home secretary. For good measure, he has also marked copies to the Union home ministry, Chief Minister Raghubar Das and the Jharkhand governor.
Rao is the second police officer to have been hastily moved out of the CID. Earlier, ADGP Rezi Dungdung, a 1987 batch IPS officer, was transferred out within days of the controversial ‘encounter’ in June 2015. This, curiously, was
barely two months after he was handed the charge. Notably, the CID is tasked with conducting independent inquiries into police and paramilitary force encounters with the Maoists.
ADGP Rao’s missive, which also claims that Jharkhand DGP D.K. Pandey asked him to “go slow” with the probe, has triggered a raging row in the insurgency-hit state. Investigating the Palamau encounter on the directions of the Jharkhand High Court, Rao’s transfer from the CID has provoked wide speculation of a cover-up. The state home department has now sought the DGP’s views on the allegations levelled by Rao.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) too has taken cognisance of the allegations that Palamau was “staged”. It has issued notice to the Jharkhand government and recorded statements of key police officers, but is yet to declare any findings in the case.
Of the 12 men killed in the encounter, only one, Anurag aka RKji aka Doctor had proven Maoist connections. Listed as a top zonal commander, he was wanted in the 2013 Latehar case in which explosives were planted inside the body of a slain CRPF man.
Credited with multiple successes against the rebels and handpicked by CM Das to head the state police in early 2015, DGP Pandey’s leadership could now be called into question.