Controversial anti-Maoist inspector general of Bastar, SRP Kalluri, forced to go on leave

Kalluri has been accused of targeting human rights lawyers, activists, and journalists after he took charge as the Bastar IG in June 2014.

File photo of the Bastar zonal Inspector General SRP Kalluri. | PTI

RAIPUR: The Bastar zone inspector general SRP Kalluri, known for his controversial moves in the strife-struck south Chhattisgarh region, has been sent on leave by the state government. A 2003-batch IPS officer P Sunderraj been appointed in his place as Bastar DIG.

Kalluri has been accused of targeting human rights lawyers, activists, journalists after he took charge as the Bastar IG in June 2014. Thrust on "propaganda and psychological warfare" remained the distinctive feature of 1994-batch IPS officer’s style of working not just against the outlawed CPI (Maoist) but also against those whom Kalluri believed as the rebels' supporters and sympathisers. He is said to have referred them as “white-collar” Maoists.

However, the recent revelations by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report on 16 tribal women raped and physically assaulted by security forces and the threatening of civil rights activist Bela Bhatia had “embarrassed” the state government that had given Kalluri virtually a “free-hand” to carry out the mode of operations against the left-wing extremism in Bastar. But his alleged "high-handedness" did not go down well with the ruling BJP government.

The state police headquarter (PHQ) maintained silence over the reasons for sending Kalluri on leave. A senior bureaucrat in the chief minister secretariat shared with the Express that the Bastar IG “citing health grounds has applied for leave which has been approved by the government.”

However, the highly placed sources in the state PHQ on condition of anonymity told Express that, “Kalluri accusing the Maoists in the recent vandalisation of 1000-year-old Ganesh idol atop Dholkal hill in Dantewada emerged as the turning point for initiating a move to send him on leave.”

A day after the idol was toppled on January 7 from the 12000-feet hill top, Kalluri and Dantewada SP K L Kashyap blamed the Maoists but the director general of police (anti-Maoist) operation D M Awasthi did not agree with the claim. And despite this, the Dantewada police went ahead and lodged a FIR against ‘unknown’ Maoists at Farsapal police station in Dantewada.

Interestingly the Farsapal panchayat secretary Baldev Maurya who lodged the complaint on a destruction of the ancient Ganesha idol said that he “did not name Maoists” in the FIR as claimed by the police. Even the district collector did not accuse the Maoists behind dislodging of the idol from hilltop. “We are not sure.

The Ganesha idol has been restored at Dholkal hill. The village youths have taken the onus of its protection. If the Maoists had toppled it, then the threat still remains since the area lies in densely forested inhospitable hilly terrain and falls in the rebels’ stronghold. And there during the night, nobody can given assurance of security from Maoists,” Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar told Express.

The noted archeologist Arun Sharma too suggested not to jump to conclusions of sabotage and start blaming the Maoists without any inquiry.

The Ganesha idol which was broken into 18 big pieces and several smaller ones was finally re-installed at the same spot on Dholkal hill on Wednesday.