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Police gunned down tribal farmers, alleges Human Rights Forum
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Saturday demanded criminal prosecution against Greyhounds for allegedly gunning down Adivasi farmers Ganga Madkami (40) and Ganga Podiami (33), on the afternoon of February 21in the Puttakota forest area of Koyyuru mandal in the district.
Visakhapatnam: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Saturday demanded criminal prosecution against Greyhounds for allegedly gunning down Adivasi farmers Ganga Madkami (40) and Ganga Podiami (33), on the afternoon of February 21in the Puttakota forest area of Koyyuru mandal in the district.
- A two-member team of HRF met with the families of the victims to enquire into the incident, and refutes police version that the deceased were supporting Naxals
HRF general secretary V S Krishna on Saturday said a two-member HRF team visited several villages in Korukonda block of Malkangiri district recently to bring out facts about the death of two adivasis and bullet injuries to the third person. The team visited Balakati village in Dudametta panchayat, the native village of the two deceased and spoke with residents and family members.
The team also spoke to Irma Kawasi (50) the injured survivor of the February 21 firing in Tumsapale village. Krishna said contrary to the “fiction” being peddled by the AP police including senior officials, Madkami and Podiami were not members of the Galikonda area committee of the Maoists. Nor was there any exchange of fire as the police had maintained, he said.
Madkami and Podiami were adivasi farmers of Balakati village and part of 22-member team that set out on February 14 in search of wild game, a custom that is traditionally undertaken twice or thrice a year by the Koyas. At about noon on February 21, Madkami, Podiami, Kawasi and Mukka Madkami set out for the hunt while the other 18 were preparing food.
About two hours later, they were resting in a fairly open area with traditional bows and arrows and two country-made weapons when there was a burst of gunfire which felled Madkami and Podiami killing them instantly. A bullet hit Irma Kawasi on his left upper arm and lodged itself inside while another one went through the upper portion of his right arm.
A terrified Mukka Madkami, who was lucky to escape any injuries, fled. He returned to his village Tumasapalli five days later. (Tragically, he died on the night of March 30 of a snake-bite while asleep in his house). Irma Kawasi ran away from the encounter site and took shelter in a church two kilometres away. The police picked him up the following day and admitted him to a hospital in Visakhapatnam.
Kawasi narrated the entire incident threadbare which makes HRF believe that it was a cold blooded murder of innocent tribals and not a case of “firing in self-defence resulting in the death of two Maoist cadre”. Krishna demanded that the Greyhounds personnel as well as police officials concerned be charged under IPC 302 and other relevant penal provisions including screening of evidence as well as the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
He also demanded compensaton of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of victims and Rs 5 lakh to injured Kawasi.
