Claiming that the people of Odisha in general have rejected the judicial inquiry report on the Kalinganagar police firing, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) has called for a fresh and time-bound probe into the firing of January 2, 2006 in which 13 tribal people lost their lives.
Nearly 1,200 locals had gathered on the spot to protest against the construction of the boundary wall of the Tata Steel. At least 12 persons died on that day when police opened fire indiscriminately to disperse the agitators. Another tribal person later succumbed to the bullet injuries in a New Delhi hospital.
SUCI Cuttack district secretary Biswabasu Das at a news conference here on Wednesday demanded registration of murder cases against all Government officials, including police and doctors, allegedly involved in the firing and subsequent mutilation of the bodies of the deceased.
He also demanded proper rehabilitation of the families of the victims.
Refuting the State Government’s claims that the families of the deceased have been adequately compensated, rehabilitated and given employments as per the recommendations of the
Judicial Commission, Das said such tall claims are not only “ridiculous” but an attempt to “hoodwink” the people.
Questioning the motive of the Government for reluctantly ordering a judicial inquiry in February 2006 that was headed by at least three judges separately at different times, the SUCI leader said the Government from the very beginning had deceitfully acted to cover up the State-sponsored mass murder of innocent tribals and gag their voice of dissent.
The commission was initially headed by the then sitting judge of Orissa High Court Justice AS Naidu. But the Government was forced to hand over the probe to retired judge of High Court PK Patro in January 2007 after the Supreme Court objected to a sitting judge heading any probe panel.
But the State Government did not allow Justice Patro to complete the probe as he was made lok Pal in May 2008. After keeping the probe under suspension for over two years, another retired High Court judge Pradyumna K Mohanty was appointed to head the panel afresh in October 2010 and he was asked to begin from where Justice Patro had left.
Similarly, Das said, Justice Mohanty too was not allowed to conduct the probe properly as he was also asked to probe into the 2011 Pipili gangrape and murder case simultaneously.
But nevertheless, Justice Mohanty completed the probe into the police firing and submitted its report to the Government in May 2015.