Delhi University, JNU profs booked for murder of tribal in Bastar

The Chhattisgarh police has booked 10 people, including Delhi University (DU) professor Nandini Sundar and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) teacher Archana Prasad, on charges of conspiring to kill a tribal spearheading protest against Maoists in a village in insurgency-hit south Bastar district of Sukma.

Somnath Baghel, a local Congress leader and head of village defence committee established by tribals of Nama — a tiny adivasi habitation under Kumal Kuleng under Darabha block in Bastar district in Chhattisgarh — was hacked to death by armed rebels on the night of November four when he was sleeping in his home.

Somnath, along with fellow villagers, had lodged a complaint with the local police against the two Delhi-based professors, accusing them of coercing them to side with Naxals and not cooperate the police in May this year, a few days after the two academicians visited Kumar Koleng.

“On the complaint of Baghel’s widow and local villagers, an FIR was filed in Tongpal police station under Sukma district against Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari who is with the Delhi-based NGO, Joshi Adhikar Sansthan, Chhattisgarh CPI (Marxist) secretary Sanjay Parate and Maoists,” Bastar district superintendent of police (SP) Rajendra Narayan Das told this newspaper on phone on Tuesday.

They have been booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 452 (tresspas), and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), he added.

Prof. Sundar who was away abroad gave her reaction in social media describing the charges against her as conspiracy by Bastar range inspector general police S.R.P. Kalluri. “I feel sad for the incident (killing of the tribal). I had nothing to do with the incident”, she said in her reaction.

The DU professor has been associated with Bastar since 1991 raising the issue of tribals being caught in the conflict between insurgency and counterinsurgency, according to her local contacts.

“She was instrumental in disbanding of Salwa Judum, anti-Naxal civil vigilante force, by dragging the outfit to the Supreme Court. She has been moving in Bastar villages for the past two decades to highlight cases of atrocities by counterinsurgency forces on local tribals”, Parate told this newspaper on phone.

The DU professor has authored a book, The Burning Forest, India’s War in Bastar. However, Bastar police suspected her nexus with Naxals.