Ranchi, Nov 27 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday pulled up the state government for having had an affidavit filed by a junior-level police officer in a public interest litigation (PIL) on the alleged “fake surrender” of tribal youths branded as extremists.
A division bench of Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Rajesh Shankar observed that sensitive matters required affidavits of senior officials, and directed the DGP to file an affidavit in the matter.
The petitioner’s counsel, Rajeev Kumar, said the affidavit has been filed by a DSP-ranking officer purposefully to shield senior officers “involved in the case”.
It was alleged in the PIL that the government has shown surrender of innocent tribals and villagers as Naxals under a policy executed by the then Union home minister, P Chidambaram.
Around 300 Maoists surrendered before Chidambaram at a function in 2014 in Ranchi. However, it was later known that several of the persons shown to be Maoists were innocent and falsely implicated, the petition alleged. PTI CORR NAM SOM
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