Ayata Mandavi, a tribal activist, is a close aide of AAP leader Soni Sori.
The Bastar police filed six cases of Maoist violence against him earlier
this year and clapped him in jail. But courts in Sukma and Dantewada
districts acquitted him, hardly eight months later.
Ayata Mandavi, a popular tribal activist of Bade Gurbe village in Sukma
district and a close aide of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Soni Sori, is
still being hounded by the Bastar police who have threatened with more such
cases him if he joins the AAP. “I was freed from jail on October 23, but I
could not stay at home for more than two days because I was getting
constant calls from the Kukanar police, who ask me to come to the station.
The police say Bastar Inspector-General of Police S.R.P. Kalluri has
ordered them to do so. They say that even if a pit is dug in Kukanar by
Naxals, they will implicate me in it,” Mr. Mandavi told *The Hindu*.
Mr. Mandavi is scared to go the station, fearing more cases.
“I have been forced to live in fear despite the acquittal by the courts. I
am sleeping at my neighbours’ houses. How can I trust them [the police]
after facing six false? I could not even go to the funeral of one of my
relatives at Jagdalpur,” he said.
Ms. Sori said the Bastar police were mounting pressure on Mr. Mandavi to
dissuade him from joining her party. “They [the police] have done it in the
past. When he was in jail for eight months, a senior police officer in
Jagdalpur would go to meet him and persuade him to stop working with me for
the tribals, offering him a good lawyer and speedy discharge in the cases,”
Ms. Sori. “Ayata Mandavi is an extremely passionate tribal activist.
Despite repeated allurements and threats from a top police officer of
Bastar, he told him that he would stay in jail for ten years rather than
being disloyal to the tribal cause. If there are a few more people like him
in Bastar championing the tribal cause, Bastar will be free from the
upheaval. Despite police threats, he would soon join the AAP,” she said.
This is not the first that the Bastar police are going after Mr. Mandavi.
In November last year, a police team, sent to Bade Gurbe village to arrest
him, instead picked up his wife Sukadi. This sparked a major protest by the
villagers.
According a police source, Mr. Mandavi was running some construction
contracts in Kukanar with the help of Maoists.
His lawyer Isha Khandelwal said all the six cases against him were “false
and baseless.”
Mr. Kalluri did not respond when his reaction was sought to Mr. Mandavi’s
charges against the police.
The Bastar police filed six cases of Maoist violence against him earlier
this year and clapped him in jail. But courts in Sukma and Dantewada
districts acquitted him, hardly eight months later.
Ayata Mandavi, a popular tribal activist of Bade Gurbe village in Sukma
district and a close aide of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Soni Sori, is
still being hounded by the Bastar police who have threatened with more such
cases him if he joins the AAP. “I was freed from jail on October 23, but I
could not stay at home for more than two days because I was getting
constant calls from the Kukanar police, who ask me to come to the station.
The police say Bastar Inspector-General of Police S.R.P. Kalluri has
ordered them to do so. They say that even if a pit is dug in Kukanar by
Naxals, they will implicate me in it,” Mr. Mandavi told *The Hindu*.
Mr. Mandavi is scared to go the station, fearing more cases.
“I have been forced to live in fear despite the acquittal by the courts. I
am sleeping at my neighbours’ houses. How can I trust them [the police]
after facing six false? I could not even go to the funeral of one of my
relatives at Jagdalpur,” he said.
Ms. Sori said the Bastar police were mounting pressure on Mr. Mandavi to
dissuade him from joining her party. “They [the police] have done it in the
past. When he was in jail for eight months, a senior police officer in
Jagdalpur would go to meet him and persuade him to stop working with me for
the tribals, offering him a good lawyer and speedy discharge in the cases,”
Ms. Sori. “Ayata Mandavi is an extremely passionate tribal activist.
Despite repeated allurements and threats from a top police officer of
Bastar, he told him that he would stay in jail for ten years rather than
being disloyal to the tribal cause. If there are a few more people like him
in Bastar championing the tribal cause, Bastar will be free from the
upheaval. Despite police threats, he would soon join the AAP,” she said.
This is not the first that the Bastar police are going after Mr. Mandavi.
In November last year, a police team, sent to Bade Gurbe village to arrest
him, instead picked up his wife Sukadi. This sparked a major protest by the
villagers.
According a police source, Mr. Mandavi was running some construction
contracts in Kukanar with the help of Maoists.
His lawyer Isha Khandelwal said all the six cases against him were “false
and baseless.”
Mr. Kalluri did not respond when his reaction was sought to Mr. Mandavi’s
charges against the police.
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