Orissa HC orders probe into police ‘excesses’ on tribal villagers resisting bauxite mining

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B The Orissa High Court has directed Rayagada district administration to submit a report in connection with alleged police excesses on tribal villagers opposed to a bauxite mining project near their village. Hearing a public interest litigation filed by Purushottam Hikaka and seven others, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Chittaranjan Dash directed the administration to maintain peace in villages close to mining site in Sijimali Hill located in the Rayagada and Kalahandi districts. Several villagers have opposed the mining proposal saying it would destroy the surrounding water sources, ecology and their livelihood. The resistance intensified after Rayagada district administration tried to facilitate the laying of a road to mining site. The April 7 order was made available online on Thursday. The petitioners alleged that police personnel raided homes in the early hours of March 10 in Kalahandi district, ransacked houses and arrested 21 villagers, including 10 women. It was also alleged that several cases were lodged against the villagers under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and they were put into Bhawanipatna jail. “The random house raids by breaking the doors were done by the police personnel which is violative of the guidelines laid down in the case of D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal,” argued advocate Anup Kumar Mohapatra, counsel for petitioners. The petitioners also narrated inhumane treatment of a 19-year-old pregnant woman and three other women and their children. These women were arrested without communicating the reason for their detention. State counsel Saswat Das submitted that the police had gone to execute non-bailable warrants issued by the court but in the course of discharging their duties, they were attacked, resulting in injuries to 58 police personnel. The matter will come up next on September 2.

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