The new Congress government in Chhattisgarh has appointed former Bastar Inspector General of Police SRP Kalluri as the head of the Economic Offences Wing and the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Kalluri is a highly controversial figure in the state. In November, a leaked internal CBI report had mentioned two witnesses who had seen Kalluri participate in the burning of adivasi homes in a 2011 operation. The Wire reported that after “instructions from above”, the names of the two witnesses were removed from the final chargesheet. Kalluri had then been the senior SP in Dantewada. His tenure also saw instances of rape.

Scroll reports that Kolluri had been transferred out of Bastar, where he had held the post of Inspector General of Police, in February 2017 after a mob had attacked activist Bela Bhatia. The report says: “He was posted in the training department in the police headquarters. A month later, he was sent notices for indiscipline after he attended an event where a police officer said human rights activists should be crushed on the roads.”

The report added: “The National Human Rights Commission has earlier sent Kalluri notices for hearings into allegations of human rights violations, but he has avoided them, citing personal reasons.” Kalluri has previously also been charged for “threatening journalists and human rights activists in Bastar”.