Tribal shot by Naxals in 3rd killing in 15 days

NAGPUR: In the third killing of a civilian in 15 days and less than 24 hours after a C-60 crack commando’s father was stoned to death in Maharashtra’s restive Gadchiroli, Maoists drew fresh blood late Friday when they dragged a tribal farmer to a kangaroo court, pronounced him guilty of engineering a woman guerrilla’s encounter and shot him from point-blank range.
Ramji Chinna Atram (28) lay sprawled on the fields of Kapewancha village in Aheri taluka till Saturday morning with a signature Maoist pamphlet pinned on his body, before villagers mustered the courage to take his corpse to the nearest police station.
The back-to-back killings in the run-up to a Maoist bandh call on November 30 to protest mining activity in the region come days after the setting up of a police post at Wangeturi — the last police frontier in the rebel-infested Dandakaranya forests on the state’s border with Chhattisgarh.

The murders also follow uprooting of agitating tribals on November 20 from Todgatta — the epicentre of a 255-day stir earlier this year against the entry of mining companies into the region.
Residents of villages straddling the vast sweep of the Maoist heartland are in panic after the killings, sandwiched between the ultras and police.
Atram happened to be present during a police encounter that snuffed out a Maoist area committee member, Asha, late last year. In their pamphlet, Maoists charged Atram with sabotage and betrayal, besides spying for a cop.

Gadchiroli SP Neelotpal refuted Maoist claims that Atram was in touch with a police official. “After he fled the encounter site (last year), Maoists dubbed him a police informer,” said Neelotpal. The SP asserted that none of the three tribals killed in the last fortnight was a police spy. “Maoists are merely trying to avenge the uprooting of the Todgatta agitation and opening of the Wangeturi police station,” he said.
Late Thursday, the Maoists had stoned to death Lalsu Velda, the commando’s father who was himself a police warden, in Titola village.
Before that, Maoists had eliminated another tribal, Dinesh Gawde, on November 14 when Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde was touring another remote police outpost in the area, Pipli Burgi.
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Sandip Patil, DIG and nodal officer for the state’s anti-Maoist operations, said the ultras’ ranks were depleted and mass support had waned.
“Some villagers who resisted the abduction and killing of police warden Velda were assaulted by the guerrillas,” said SP Neelotpal, adding the offensives against the Maoists had been stepped up.