A decade after their homes were burnt and family members killed by state-supported Salwa Judum vigilantes, the Adivasis of Kondasawali vill...
A decade after their homes were burnt and family members killed by state-supported Salwa Judum vigilantes, the Adivasis of Kondasawali village in Chhattisgarh stand vindicated with the National Human Rights Commission ruling against the police and government officials. But the village community is unhappy with what they say is a partial delivery of justice far removed from their context.
On December 23, the Commission ordered the Chhattisgarh government to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of seven villagers who were murdered in Sukma district’s Kondasawali gram panchayat in 2009-’10. The Commission also ordered the state to pay appropriate monetary compensation to 95 families whose homes were burnt down in Kondasawali and three other nearby villages in Sukma district in 2007.
In a complaint to the Sukma district collector in 2013, the affected villagers had alleged that the arson and killings were committed by special police officers of the Jagargonda base camp and leaders of the Salwa Judum, a state-supported armed militia that was active in Chhattisgarh from 2005 to 2011. Infamous for unleashing violence on ordinary Adivasis in the name of nabbing Maoists, the Salwa Judum was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
In a scathing report in September 2019,...
