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Ranchi, Oct 8 (IANS) The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday sought a detailed status report from the state government regarding the alleged fake surrender of 514 tribal youth who were falsely branded as Maoists.
The matter came up for hearing before a division bench of Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Rajesh Shankar, which directed the government to submit its report by the next hearing on November 20.
The court heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Center for Democratic Rights, which has accused senior police and administrative officials of carrying out a large-scale fake surrender operation to inflate anti-Naxal achievements and receive recognition and awards from the federal home ministry.
According to the petition, 514 tribal youth from various districts were declared Maoists and forced to surrender between 2010 and 2013.
The PIL alleged that these youth were lured with false promises of jobs in the CRPF, while crores of rupees were spent from the state exchequer managing the surrender program and subsequent “rehabilitation”.
The court also referred to earlier proceedings in which it had directed the Union Home Ministry and the state Home Secretary to submit a sealed report on the facts surrounding the case.
It has asked the government to clarify whether the surrendered youth were ever given weapons or training inside the old Ranchi jail complex, and if such training had any legal or administrative sanction.
A controversial coaching institute has also come under the scanner with local police and administrative officials allegedly identifying and wrongly branding innocent tribal youth as Marrow.
An initial internal police investigation had found that only 10 of the 514 youth had any verifiable links to Maoist activity.
Investigators recorded statements from 128 of the accused, but many could not be traced or were not present at the given addresses.
Despite horrific irregularities, the official investigation was later closed without reaching a conclusion, prompting civil rights groups to approach the High Court for intervention.
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