“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” - Global Coalition to Protect ...

One of the boys got beaten a lot with the butt of the rifle—and he got
beaten all over his body. He was screaming a lot and became
unconscious. Two people were detained in the police station as
guarantee when the others were released. The police told us that if
anything happens to them [police] and Naxalites attack them, then
they will send the boys to jail. [name withheld] is the class 10 student
who was beaten badly. The two people who were detained as
guarantee are [name withheld], also a class 10 student, and his father
[name withheld]. 134
Another villager from Lingagiri narrated how the police tried to lure him with a cash
award to go into a school and recover a rifle which they said the Naxalites had left
behind. He said he recognized the police’s request as a ploy to plant evidence on
him and arrest him as a Naxalite. When he refused to go into the school, the police
repeatedly pushed his face into a nearby stream, took him to the police station, and
beat him. As he described, in mid-2006,
The police came at around 2 p.m. in the afternoon when I was relaxing
with my child at home. They barged into my house and took me and
tied my hands at the back. They told me that they had not seen me
around earlier and so I must be a Naxalite. They also threatened to kill
me if I attempted to run away…. When we reached the school the
police asked me to go inside the school and bring a rifle that they
knew Naxalites had hidden. They said, “Naxalites have kept a rifle in
that school, go and get it and the government will give you 1,500
rupees [roughly US$37]. Government will also give you a uniform.” I
refused to go inside the school. I realized that it was a trap and that
the police would take a picture of me with the rifle if I picked it up, kill
me, and pass me off as a Naxalite. They kept me there for about 45
minutes. At the stream they dunked me in the water 3-4 times and
started interrogating me regarding the whereabouts of Naxalites,
134 Ibid.
“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” 56