There are horrific atrocities being committed against the Adivasis, and their right to life is being violated. It is the responsibility of the Supreme Court to protect these rights. However, when someone approaches the Supreme Court seeking justice, they are fined instead.

By Himanshu Kumar

Sukdi is an Adivasi woman whose husband was killed by the police first, and a few years later, her son was also killed. The police twice forced her to sign documents to cover up their crimes. Her case has reached the Supreme Court of India twice. The first time, the Supreme Court fined main petitioner Himanshu Kumar 500,000 rupees for seeking justice. The second time, her plea for justice is still being heard by the Supreme Court.

Sukma district was part of the old Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, but it has now become a separate district. In 2005, leaders of the BJP government accepted money from large corporations. Evidence was presented by Prashant Bhushan and Randeep Surjewala to the media showing that Abhishek Singh, the BJP MP son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, had invested this money in Swiss banks and anonymous Panama companies. The Panama companies were linked to the Raman Medical Store in Kawardha, which was owned by the Chief Minister.

The BJP government violated the Constitution after accepting bribes from capitalists and corporations. To help mining companies take over tribal lands, the Chhattisgarh government provided 5,000 hooligans with government rifles and gave them the status of Special Police Officers. These forces, along with the police and paramilitary, set fire to the homes of Adivasis in 644 villages. They looted cash and women’s jewellery from the homes. Thousands of women were raped by these officers, thousands of Adivasis were killed, and many were thrown into jails.

Madkam Mudraj, an illiterate hooligan, also became a government Special Police Officer. He was initially given a .303 rifle. Mudraj enthusiastically burned down Adivasi homes, committed murders, and raped women. His terror spread far and wide. Police Superintendent Rahul Sharma promoted him to a Koya Commando and gave him a more dangerous AK-47 automatic rifle, making him the leader of a team. In January 2009, Mudraj and his team went to Singaram village in Sukma district. This team raped four girls and shot dead nineteen Adivasis in a line.

At that time, through the Gandhi Ashram and with the help of my colleagues, we were serving the Adivasis. The families of the killed Adivasis contacted me. I took the affected Adivasis to the state capital, Raipur, held a press conference at the Press Club, and filed a case in the Chhattisgarh High Court. In response to this incident, Congress MLAs from the opposition party staged a walkout in the Assembly, and the Speaker suspended thirty Congress MLAs.

The High Court did not order any investigation or filing of a FIR against the accused. This emboldened the killers even more. In October 2009, Madkam Mudraj and his team went to the nearby village of Gompad and killed sixteen Adivasis. This time, they cut off the hand of a two-and-a-half-year-old child. They stabbed his mother in the head, slit the throat of his eight-year-old aunt, cut off his grandmother’s breasts, and disembowelled his blind grandfather. The mother, dying from the head wound, was stripped, and the team gang-raped her in this condition.

The victims of this incident also contacted me. This time, I took the family members of those killed to the Supreme Court in Delhi because the High Court was not hearing the case. We held a press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi, where the Adivasis shared their stories. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court.

For the next seven years, even the Supreme Court did not order for filing any FIR or investigation against the accused, which further emboldened Madkam Mudraj. In 2016, he returned to Gompad village with his team. This time, he dragged a 19-year-old girl, Madkam Hidme, who had recently been married and had come to visit her mother, out of her house. Mudraj began dragging her toward the forest to rape her. When her mother, Lakshmi, tried to rescue her, Madkam Mudraj beat her brutally with the butt of his gun. When another woman from the neighbourhood tried to intervene, one of Mudraj’s men struck her with the butt of his gun, killing the infant she was holding.

Mudraj and his team took the girl to a nearby hill. The girl’s screams could be heard, but Mudraj’s men, armed with guns, prevented the villagers from approaching. After gang-raping the girl, they stabbed her with a knife, slashing her from her vagina to her navel. Mudraj and his team took her body to the police station. Two days later, Lakshmi and her husband were handed their daughter’s body by the police. In a press release, the police falsely labelled the girl as a Maoist and shared a photo of her corpse dressed in a Naxalite uniform. The body had bullet holes, but the uniform did not, indicating she was shot first and then dressed in the uniform.

Lakshmi approached the Chhattisgarh High Court seeking justice. In court, the police claimed she was not the girl’s real mother. Lakshmi demanded a DNA test to prove her maternity, but the High Court dismissed her plea, siding with the police.

After this incident, Madkam Mudraj became even more brazen. In 2018, he returned to Gompad village with his team, firing shots into the air and hurling insults at the villagers. Mudraj and his men stripped completely naked, shouting that they would not spare any girl in the village and would enjoy themselves with all of them. They taunted the villagers, saying, “You went to the High Court, you went to the Supreme Court, but what did you achieve against me?” Terrified, the villagers fled into the forest.

Mudraj and his team captured goats, pigs, and chickens from the villagers, lit a fire in the middle of the village, and feasted. They also looted and drank the villagers’ toddy and mahua liquor. For two days, Mudraj and his team remained in the village, challenging the villagers to face them if they dared. Then, Mudraj and his team set out to hunt down the villagers. In the neighbouring village of Nulkatong, sixteen children and teenagers were hiding under a tree. Mudraj and his team shot dead fifteen Adivasis, seven of whom were young children. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the hip, labelled a Naxalite, and imprisoned, though she was later acquitted by the court.

In this case, the human rights organisation APCLC from Andhra Pradesh filed a petition in the Supreme Court.

Recently, the central government argued in the Supreme Court that, just as the Court had imposed a fine of five lakh rupees on Himanshu Kumar for filing a similar petition, the petitioners from APCLC should also be punished, and their petition should be dismissed. The next hearing is scheduled for next week.

There are horrific atrocities being committed against the Adivasis, and their right to life is being violated. It is the responsibility of the Supreme Court to protect these rights. However, when someone approaches the Supreme Court seeking justice, they are fined instead.

So, who will protect the Adivasis’ right to life?