Days after security forces shot at four children in Chhattisgarh’s Abujmarh in an “operation” against “Naxals”, the Chhattisgarh police allegedly harassed two of the children and prevented them from going home after being discharged from the hospital.
On December 19, 14-year-old Chaitram Oyam and eight-year-old Sonu Oyam had left the Dantewada district hospital with their kin and were making preparations to return to their village. They were forcibly brought back to the medical facility and “locked up” in a room by police personnel, their families alleged.
The security forces had shot dead Chaitram’s father Masal Oyam and six others on December 11. The harassment by the police prevented Chaitram from conducting the last rites of his father in the village as planned, alleged Chhattisgarh-based activist Soni Sori, who had helped the children get admitted in the Dantewada hospital on December 14 and was assisting their return to Abujmarh after treatment.
Gaurav Rai, Superintendent of Police, Dantewada told Newslaundry that the children were brought back to the hospital “because their treatment wasn’t complete”. On why the children were discharged from the hospital in the first place, Rai said, “I will look into the matter and will let you know.”
During the “anti-Naxal operation” conducted by members of the District Reserve Guard, Central Reserve Police Force and a police Special Task Force, Chaitram was shot in the buttock and thigh, while a bullet grazed Sonu's head, when the two were working in the fields alongside their family and other villagers. The police had claimed that “Naxalites” were using children as “porters” or “human shields” and “may have been injured in crossfire”.
"The two minor boys were discharged from the hospital around 12 noon on Thursday, December 19. I brought them home along with their family members. They freshened up and had lunch around 3 pm. Shortly after, I started receiving calls from police officials asking me to bring the boys back to the hospital. When I explained that the children had already been discharged from the hospital, the police insisted that they needed to conduct some additional tests,” Soni Sori told Newslaundry.
So, Sori said she took the children back to the hospital at 6 pm where “a few tests were performed”.
“I still can't understand why these tests were conducted after the children had already been discharged. When I spoke to the doctor about it, she claimed to have no knowledge of the situation,” she added.
Sori further alleged that the children and their families were subjected to continuous harassment ever since they were discharged, with the police authorities even attempting to take the two minors into their custody.
“After the tests, when we tried to leave, the police stopped my vehicle, preventing me from leaving with the children. I got out of the vehicle and filmed a video with the kids to document how the police were unnecessarily harassing us. Later, I went to a relative's house with the two children to attend my nephew’s birthday party, but the police followed us there as well,” she said.
The police allegedly continued to trail the children and their families even as Sori took them to another relative’s house. “The police arrived at the other relative’s house too demanding that I hand over the children to them. I refused and said that the children intended to return to their village with their family. I arranged for the children to stay in the house while I guarded their room outside to ensure their safety,” she said.
The next morning, Sori claimed, the police reportedly took the children to the hospital by force when she wasn’t around. She said she had gone home at around 6.30 am and told the children’s families that she would return shortly to take them back to their village.
“However, when I returned to my relative's house, no one was there. The police had forcefully taken the children to the hospital,” she said.
Sonu’s mother Pendo Oyam told Newslaundry that they were “just getting ready when the police barged in and forcefully took us to the hospital in their vehicle”.
“We kept insisting that we did not want to go with them and wanted to return to our village, but they ignored our requests. Instead, they tied the boys’ mouths and forced them into the vehicle,” she said.
At the hospital, the children and their family members were “locked up” in a room and were let out only after the children started crying, Pendo alleged.
Chaitram’s older brother Raju Oyam said the police paid no heed to the children’s plea of letting them go home.
“It was around 7 am when the police arrived at Soni Sori’s relative’s house. They forced us into the vehicle and when both children started crying, they forced a cloth into their mouths. Then they brought us to the hospital and locked us inside a room,” he told Newslaundry on the phone. “The kids were crying continuously after which they let us out and shifted us to another room. We kept pleading with the police officials to let us go but they didn't listen to us.”
Raju added: “I don't know for what purpose the police kept the children in hospital when they had already been discharged. The officials said that the kids are infected with malaria, but how is it possible that in the morning they didn't have anything and by evening they were infected with malaria?”
Pendo said: “All we want is to go back to our village. Our family depends on farming, and since the firing, we haven’t been able to tend to our fields. If we don’t reach home soon, our crops will be destroyed.”
Chaitram and Sonu were finally allowed to leave for Abujmarh on December 22, three days after they were discharged from the hospital.
“Other activists and I met senior officials from the district administration and told them that despite being discharged by the hospital, the police had held the children and their families unnecessarily. Only after their intervention, the boys were released by the police and were allowed to go home.” Sori said.
The children, the families and the activists were reportedly taken halfway to their homes in a police van after they did not accept the personnel request to escort them back to the village.
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