Bastar IG Kalluri returns, attached to state police headquarters without any charge

Five days after Kalluri was sent on a three-month long medical leave by the state government, he has been attached with the Police Headquarters.
File photo of the Bastar zonal Inspector General SRP Kalluri. | PTI
File photo of the Bastar zonal Inspector General SRP Kalluri. | PTI

RAIPUR: Five days after Bastar’s controversial inspector-general (IG) of police SRP Kalluri was sent on a three-month long medical leave by the state government, he has been attached with the Police Headquarters (PHQ) without any charge with immediate effect, after he placed a call to director general of police (DGP) A N Upadhyaya, asking for a fresh posting.

“The IG SRP Kalluri has reported back without availing his medical leave. He has requested the DGP for a posting. He has been attached to the PHQ without any charge on Tuesday”, the state government spokesperson stated. 

Kalluri surprised everyone regarding his willingness to return on the social media, which he uses extensively to disseminate his messages.  “I have come back to join my wife and children. I have called the DGP and requested him to post me elsewhere. I prefer moving out voluntarily on my own rather than being transferred”, he said.

Kalluri, as the Bastar zone IGP, has been accused of committing police excesses in the strife-torn south Chhattisgarh region.  Last Thursday, he was asked to go on medical leave by the Chhattisgarh government. Subsequently, P Sunderraj, a 2003-batch IPS officer was appointed in his place as Bastar DIG.

The 1994-batch officer has been accused of targeting human rights lawyers, activists, journalists and tribal leaders after he took charge as the Bastar IG in June 2014.

Thrust on "propaganda and psychological warfare" remained a distinctive feature of Kalluri’s style of working not just against the outlawed CPI (Maoist) but also those whom he believed as the rebels' supporters and sympathisers. He is said to have referred to them as “white-collar” Maoists.

Recently, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had pulled up the Chhattisgarh government for human rights violation in the state and released a report on 16 tribal women who were raped and physically assaulted by the police personnel in restive Bijapur district. Adding insult to injury, the threatening of civil rights activist Bela Bhatia had “embarrassed” the state government that had given Kalluri virtually a “free-hand” in the state.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com