Activist and Aam Aadmi Party leader Soni Sori on Sunday accused the Chhattisgarh Police of framing her in a case related to an encounter last month in which 15 persons, said to be ordinary villagers, were killed, The Indian Express reported.
The encounter on August 6 took place in the Mika Tong forest, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Konta police station in southern Sukma. The police had detained four villagers, including a woman, from the encounter site – two of them have since been released – and claimed to have recovered 16 weapons.
While no First Information Report has been registered so far, the police issued summons to Sori on the basis of a complaint filed by Sodi Hadma, a resident of Nulkaton village near the site of the encounter. Hadma has accused Sori of provoking vilalgers to file statements against the police, PTI quoted an unnamed police officer as saying. He also claimed to have lost a job after Sori called him to several meetings.
At a press conference in Raipur, Sori accused the police of trying to implicate her. “Sodi Hadma, who I have never met, has complained against me,” she said. “It is a conspiracy of the police to implicate me in a false case. The truth will come out if he and I are brought face to face.”
AAP state convener Sanket Thakur said the charges were baseless and the state government was afraid of Sori’s growing popularity. “The state government is scared of the increasing impact of AAP and her growing popularity in Bastar region,” he said. “Therefore, it is trying to implicate her in a false case.” He said the party would protest across the state if Sori is arrested.
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