Kin: Cops threatening, harassing Soni Sori’s family

A relative of tribal rights activist Soni Sori on Monday alleged that the Bastar police in Chhattisgarh is threatening and harassing the AAP leader’s family in the garb of probing the recent attack on her and sought President Pranab Mukherjee.s intervention in the matter.

Addressing a press conference, Ms Sori’s nephew and activist Lingaram Kodopi accused the police of coercion claiming that tribal activist’s relatives are being picked up randomly and being forced to give statements that the attack on the AAP leader was orchestrated by her to gain sympathy.

“What is happening in the name of investigation is harassment and the police are trying to frame us. The police is forcing us to state that the attack on her was either the result of some personal dispute or orchestrated by herself in order to gain sympathy,” he claimed.

In his letter, Mr Kodopi urged President Mukherjee to intervene in the matter and also sought an appointment to meet him. “The special investigation team (SIT), probing the matter, is harassing and threatening me and other relatives of Soni Sori,” the letter said.

Forty-four-year-old Ms Sori, a popular tribal activist, was attacked with some acid-like substance allegedly by a group of youths last month. She was initially treated at a hospital in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district and later brought to Delhi. She returned to her native place earlier this month.

Mr Kodopi (29) alleged that a senior IPS officer heading the entire operation had framed him earlier in a case. “The police picked up Sori’s father and two other relatives and harassed them. When I called up the police control room, an officer who did not name himself snatched the phone from the operator and started to abuse me. He asked me to come to the police control room immediately,” he claimed.

“After Soni Sori’s father returned home, he told us that the senior IPS officer called his daughter a prostitute and claimed that police officers had sexually assaulted her,” Mr Kopodi claimed.