During the Dussehra break in October last year, Shaiytu Kunjam decided not to return to his residential school in Bijapur’s Basaguda, where he was a student of class 4, from his home in Pidiya village. Seven months later, that decision would cost him his life.

On May 10 this year, the 15-year-old was among 12 people who the Chhattisgarh police termed as Maoists and gunned down in a 12-hour operation around Pidiya and Itawar villages.

But the police action has been under cloud, since only two of those 12 were declared by a Maoist statement as militia, with several families and activists accusing the police of 10 extrajudicial killings. Additionally, a police statement after the operation getting three names wrong has only added to suspicion.

The families of 10 of the deceased, along with activist groups, also claimed that they had tried to file a complaint against the police after the operation, but the police had refused to register it. 

The police, on their part, have pointed to police records to say that all of the deceased had bounties on their heads, amounting to a total of Rs 15 lakh. Shaiytu had an award of Rs 20,000, police claimed.

The incorrect names

Two days after the incident, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) western Bastar division committee identified Punem Kallu and Uika Buddhu as their cadres. 

The 10 other deceased were identified by their families as Shaiytu Kunjam, 15, Sunita Kunjam, 17, Lakke Kunjam, 20, Chotu Undam, 21, Chotu Ursa, 24, Joga Barse, 30, Suklu Taati, 35, Bheema Oyaam, 22, Dula Tamo, 25, and Sunnu Avlam, 50, all residents of Itawar and Pidiya. 

But the police statement used the photograph of Chotu Undam to call him Bhima Karam, an alleged Maoist operative who was arrested last week. Chotu Ursa was named Sannu Lekam, who is currently in jail in a Maoist case, and Suklu Taati was called Sukhram Awlam.

The families of the 10 deceased tried to file a complaint. “May is the season to collect tendu leaves…On the morning of May 10, 2024, a large number of police personnel arrived in the villages of Pidiya and Itawar. When they started rounding up villagers, people got scared and started running. People from both villages were followed by security officials, who then opened fire…some of the people even shouted that they were villagers…police officials opened indiscriminate fire on the  villagers, chasing them and killing them,” read the complaint. It also alleged the police injured six others in firing and assaulted around 15 women.

However, Bela Bhatia, a Bastar-based human rights lawyer and activist who visited the two villages, claimed that the police refused to lodge the complaint. “First we were kept waiting for many hours. Then the police officer refused outright to admit it saying that an FIR had already been filed…the SP too maintained the same position. ‘I am under no obligation to receive the complaint,’ he said. When I asked him to give it in writing, he refused.”

A fact-finding report by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties also called the deaths “extrajudicial killings”.

Rinchin, a Bastar-based human rights activist who was part of the fact-finding team, said, “Villagers described how those engaged in daily activities of collecting Tendu leaves were surrounded, hunted down, and shot by the police. Hearing the gunfire, people from two villages fled into the surrounding forests for shelter. Some climbed trees for safety, but the police found and surrounded them. Despite their pleas and the fact that they were unarmed and merely going about their daily tasks, the police and paramilitary personnel opened fire, killing them…eyewitnesses repeatedly stressed that they had cried out to the police, stating they were unarmed and pleading for the shooting to stop, but these cries were ignored.”

Tribal rights activist Soni Sori was also part of the fact-finding team. “The villagers have buried the bodies but have refused to cremate them until justice is served and the victims are recognised as innocent and unarmed. This extrajudicial killing in Pidiya is part of a series of recent police violence incidents. On the day of the incident, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh congratulated the security forces for their success in eliminating Naxals, without any inquiry, even as news of villagers protesting and refuting these claims emerged.”

“The police had detained about 100 villagers at the district headquarters, prompting others to march to Bijapur, unsure who had been shot or detained. Eventually, dead bodies were released, 15 people were jailed, and four injured were hospitalised. Local organisations, political parties, and leaders have visited the site, supporting the villagers’ claims. Despite this, the state government has not commissioned any inquiry into the incident,” Sori alleged.

Ritesh Kumar, superintendent of the Portacabin school in Basaguda where Shaiytu was a student, said he “was a simple and mild-mannered boy” who was “average in his studies but was hard-working”. He said when Shaiytu did not return after the Dussehra break, he contacted his family and learned that “he had been involved in seasonal work, such as farming and cattle grazing, which is a common practice in the village. Many students who return home for holidays often take on such tasks and then return after a few months. Shaiytu had informed me that he would come back once he completed his work.”

“But unfortunately, he never did."

Asked about the credibility of the encounter and the killing of a 15-year-old student,  Bijapur SP Jitendra Yadav said, “This is wrong. No school student has been killed in the encounter.” Asked further about it, Yadav disconnected the phone.

Newslaundry reached out to Bastar IG P Sundarraj. This report will be updated if a response is received.