24-Year-Old Tribal Woman Gets Killed In Dantewada, Police Claim It As 'Maoist Encounter'

Dantewada Tribal Woman Killed: A tribal woman,24, in the Dantewada town of Chattisgarh was allegedly killed during police encounter on May 31, as per police statement. The woman's family claimed that the woman was picked up from her houses and allegedly raped.

The family in their statement in media reports also claimed that the woman's body was mutilated after it was handed to them. They also submitted a complaint on Sunday at a local police station. According to reports, no FIR has been registered yet.

The Dantewada police in their press statement claimed that the woman gunned down by the District Reserve Guards (DRG) police on May 31. The police alleged that the woman was part of a Maoist team in the Geedam area of Dantewada. The woman was allegedly had arms and ammunition on her along with other essentials.

The Bastar Inspector General of police, P Sundarraj claimed in his statement that his team had received a tip-off about the presence of Maoists of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army( PLGA) Platoon No 16.

" An exchange of fire took place between Dantewada DRG and Maoists at around 6.30 am. During a search operation later, a woman Maoist's body was recovered which was identified as that of the woman concerned. She carried a reward of ₹2 lakh. Two country-made weapons and improvised explosive devices IEDs were also recovered from the site," he said.

The Dantewada Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek Pallava also stated the said woman was a member of platoon No 16 and that her name had come up in the interrogation records of surrendered and arrested Maoists of the same platoon.

What happened according to the family?

The deceased woman's family refuted the police claims of the Maoist encounter. The woman's mother claimed that she was picked up from her house on May 30. In a letter addressed to the station-in-charge of the local police station, the woman's mother claimed that her daughter was arrested by female constables while they were asleep. She also accused that seven DRG officials of neighbouring villages of allegedly taking her with them.

The mother wrote in her letter, "We ran behind the vehicle in which they had taken my daughter for at least half a kilometre." When the family went to file a complaint, they were told to go to the Dantewada police station. It is where the family found out that the woman was killed, according to reports.

The letter written by the deceased woman's family also alleged that the body of the woman showed injuries on her thighs, hands and breasts. The sarpanch of the village also sided with the family's version and claimed that the entire village had seen the woman getting picked up from her house.

In his reported statement, the sarpanch claimed that the woman was not involved in Maoist activities. He said, "She was to get married in June. She had been involved with Maoists around five years ago but had returned home a couple of years back. There were no weapons in their house, and she did not carry any on her either."

According to reports, a senior official claimed, "“The family and villagers had all attended a meeting on June 4, called by Maoists. They are being forced to protest.”