The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday transferred controversial former Bastar Inspector General of Police SRP Kalluri to the post of transport commissioner, reported The Indian Express.
Kalluri was appointed head of the Economic Offences Wing and the Anti-Corruption Bureau in January. His batchmate GP Singh will now take over the post.
Kalluri, who has been accused of human rights violations in the past, had been transferred out of Bastar in February 2017 after a mob attacked activist and scholar Bela Bhatia. A month later, he was sent notices for indiscipline after he attended an event where a police officer said human rights activists should be crushed on the roads. A leaked internal memo of the Central Bureau of Investigation showed that the agency suspected Kalluri’s involvement in the violence that took place in three Adivasi villages in 2011.
Earlier this month, at least 15 MPs wrote to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel asking him to set up an “overarching inquiry that looks into the actions” of Kalluri during his tenure in Bastar. “On the basis of complaints and fake cases against activists, SRP Kalluri was transferred out of the district,” they said. “However, the excesses and illegalities committed by him remain unpunished.”
Baghel himself had sought action against Kalluri in 2017, saying the police officer faced accusations of “spreading terror, rape and murders”. The Congress government was widely expected to investigate Kalluri’s track record of alleged human rights violations. In October 2016, as the state Congress president, Baghel had asked for Kalluri to be jailed.
Also read: The rehabilitation of SRP Kalluri, and why the Congress is edging towards the wrong side of history
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