OtherIndia.org

Evening of 14 January 2010, Room No. 2016, 2nd floor New Private Ward, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Sodi Sambo sits on a bed. Witness to and a victim of the killing of 9 people by the police at Gompad village, Dantewada on 1 October 2009. 13 persons including Sodi Sambo had alleged in a petition to the Supreme Court that the police had killed these nine people in a false encounter. The bearded man sitting next to Sambo gets up on seeing me and has started questioning me. He phoned someone addressing him as bhaiya (brother) and asks me to speak to him. The voice on the phone asks "Do you know Gondi?" I replied "No" so he said "Go away from here". Then the bearded person told me to leave.

On the evening of 20 January when I went to meet Sodi Sambo again a security personnel pushing me by the shoulder shouted, "You get out, media people don't show your face here . . . get lost". When argument ensued, the matter reached the authorities. According to him the patient had herself given it in writing in Hindi that she did not wish to meet anybody. However, the truth is that Sodi Sambo does not know any language other than Gondi. Many social activists and Sambo's lawyer have tried meeting her, but failed. On 22 January, the Supreme Court gave an order that Sambo's lawyer, Colin Gonsalves, co-petitioner Himanshu Kumar and a Gondi speaking biligual person can meet Sambo without the presence of the police. The Court has asked the government not to create any obstacle or interfere in this. The Court had stated the same even before Sambo was brought to AIIMS.

But before this order, Sambo was quietly discharged from the hospital on 21 January. S. Rastogi, the doctor treating her, says, "From our end, her treatment was complete. We have no information about who got her discharged and where she was taken."

According to the Director of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, Himanshu Kumar, on 1 October 2009, members of the Salwa Judum, CRPF and the local police had killed 9 people from Gompad village in a false encounter. Sodi Sambo was also shot in the leg in the presence of her child during the same incident. After filing a petition relating to the Gompad massacre, when Sambo was on her way to Delhi on 3 January, she was made to get off the vehicle by the police. On 6 January, the People's Union for Civil Liberties and the People's Union for Democratic Rights applied to the Supreme Court that Shambo had been taken into custody by the police and that she was being prevented from seeking treatment in Delhi. On 7 January, the Supreme Court directed the Chhattisgarh government not to prevent Sambo from going to get treatment at St. Stephens Hospital, Delhi. After the intervention of the Supreme Court, she was brought to Delhi on 13 January, but instead of St. Stephens Hospital she was admitted at the government hospital, AIIMS under strict surveillance.

Human rights organisations charge that in the name of anti naxal operations even those raising issues of human rights are being victimised by the police and the special police officers (SPOs). Before the intervention of the Supreme Court for the treatment of Sambo, the police informed the press that some relative of Sambo had complained to the Superintendent of Police, Dantewada on 5 January that Himanshu had abducted Sambo. The Home Minister, P. Chidambaram was slated to attend a jan sunvai (public hearing) organised by Himanshu on 6 and 7 January at Dantewada. But using the excuse of local opposition, neither was the jan sunvai permitted, nor did Chidambaram arrive. The 25 people who did arrive were apprehended by the police and they are still missing. On 14 January, Himanshu moved an interim application before the Supreme Court that talked of the 25 people going missing who had arrived for the jan sunvai to be attended by the Home Minister. On 22 January, the Supreme Court ordered the Chhattisgar government to submit a report on all the massacres, including Gompad, within 10 days. The court also asked for a report on the people rendered missing.

According to human rights organisations, the constitutionally guaranteed rights are being violated in Dantewada district for the last six months. Those refusing to sing the tune of the government are either being disappeared or killed. Journalists, social activists, and teachers from other states are being prevented from going to Dantewada. Police and SPOs continuously tail such persons. According to Himanshu, till date 644 villages have been burnt down. More than 3 lakh adivasis have been displaced. According to him, the security forces are going to the extent of raping adivasi women in the name of anti-naxal operations. Nandini Sundar and Ujjwal Kumar Singh, both professors of Delhi University, went to Dantewada on 28 December. According to them, they were continuously followed by armed policemen. They did not get any place to stay overnight. Nandini states that the state government does not want any news to go outside or allow the visit from any person from outside the state. Ujjwal says, "Research work cannot be done sitting in universities. We had gone there to know the ground reality. But we did not get permission to speak to anyone. This is a violation of the right to information and free expression and is an insult to independent education, research and knowledge. The state government is sponsoring protest demonstrations against people coming from outside." On 6 January, Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Madhuresh, and others reached [Dantewada] for the satyagrah. A crowd pelted eggs and stones at them. According to them, this was sponsored by the government. According to human rights activists, those talking about human rights violations are being called naxal sympathisers. The SP Dantewada, Amresh Mishra rebuffs these allegations, "Due to naxalite activities there is danger and everybody cannot be provided security. For this reason, people were being told not to come here. Sodi Sambo is in Konta. There is no restriction on meeting her."

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Caption: Demostration in Dantewada on 6 January

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Caption: Sodi Sambo in wounded state

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Caption: "I am not absconding, it is not possible to do anything staying here, I will make people outside aware about the situation here" – Himanshu Kumar