india - Bijapur: ‘Policemen raped women, indulged in loot’-40 tribal women complain of molestation by Bijapur police

“From the accounts we have heard, and what we saw in the villages, the violence was on a mass scale. Around 40 women have said that they were forced to strip, sexually harassed and assaulted,” organisation for women’s rights said.
Women from five villages have alleged that Chhattisgarh Police personnel sexually harassed and assaulted more than 40 of them, and gangraped at least two in the Maoist-hit district of Bijapur. A fact-finding team of Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS), an organisation for women’s rights, which visited the villages deep in the forests, also said that many residents alleged that their belongings were destroyed, stolen or scattered by the forces passing through the villages. Four women from the villages — including a 14-year-old, who was allegedly blindfolded and gangraped — were brought to the Bijapur district headquarters by the fact-finding team. The victims presented their versions before the District Collector, Superintendent of Police and other officials.

Later, a medical examination of the four victims was also conducted. The WSS members said that while the exact dates of the incidents were unclear, villagers indicated that most of the violence took place between October 19 and October 24 in the villages of Pegdapalli, Chinnagelur, Peddagelur, Gundam and Burgicheru. Rinchin, a member of the probe team, said, “From the accounts we have heard, and what we saw in the villages, the violence was on a mass scale. Around 40 women have said that they were forced to strip, sexually harassed and assaulted. Even breastfeeding mothers were assaulted, and those with children too. This happened across villages.”


Nearly 40 tribal women from three villages in the restive Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh have accused police jawans of molestation. The women belong to Peddagelur, Budgicheru and Gundam villages of Basaguda block. Soni Sori, tribal activist and Aam Aadmi Party leader, who visited the villages with a team of woman activists, said the harassment took place when security forces from Bijapur were carrying out an operation in the area between October 19 and 24.
“The women told us that around 40 of them were molested by the policemen. Two of them said they were raped. The policemen stripped many women and indulged in indecent behaviour,” Ms. Sori told The Hindu. “These villages are situated deep inside the forest. We were able to bring four women to Bijapur district headquarters today [Sunday] and they have testified in front of District Collector Yashwant Kumar,” she said. The complaint to the Collector said while a 14-year-old girl, who was grazing her cattle, was allegedly blindfolded and gangraped, another victim was “repeatedly dunked in a stream and gangraped”.