Claiming that there was no intelligence input that the Maoists were moving in a vehicle, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) Dr Rameswhar Oraon on Wednesday said the security personnel did not follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during the anti-Maoist operation in Kandhamal district on July 8, which led to the death of five innocent tribals.
“They (security forces) have not at all followed the SOP. There was no intelligence input that the Maoists were moving in a vehicle. The jawans should have minimum knowledge that Maoists do not come by vehicles. Generally, Maoists move on foot in the jungles while civilians move in vehicles. They should have applied minimum knowledge before opening fire,” said Oraon after meeting the families of the deceased for about three hours.
He suggested to the State Government to conduct psychiatric test of the Special Operations Group (SOG) jawans allegedly involved in the gunning down of five villagers.
“The jawans involved in the killings should undergo psychiatric test. They opened fire on innocent civilians without any provocation. Hence, certainly it requires a psychiatric test,” said Oraon.
Reiterating that the incident was unfortunate, Oraon said, “Now, the issue is what action should be taken so that such unfortunate incidents do not happen in future.”
Rejecting the police version that the villagers were caught in the crossfire during the operation and got killed, Oraon said, “No such thing happened at all.”
“Nobody including the police and the district administration is contesting that the jawans opened fire unilaterally. There was no provocation at all,” said Oraon.
On the question of a SIT probe as announced by the State Government, Oraon said investigation should be completed in 90 days in such cases as defined by the Supreme Court.