Archbishop’s plea in SC, Patil to go to Orissa

Cheenath has challenged the failure of the state Government to deploy “adequate” police to maintain law and order at Kandhamal district and protect “innocent people whose human rights are being blatantly violated after the unfortunate and brutal killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and others on August 23 by some Maoists”.

He has accused the state Government of not taking any action to prevent the “massacres and the intimidation”. He has alleged that the recent attacks are a “part of a well orchestrated conspiracy which had the full support of the state Government”.

Cheenath has sought a direction to the National Human Rights Commission to send a team to the violence-hit areas to conduct an inquiry within two weeks and prosecute the guilty. The petition says the state Government should be directed to pay compensation to the tune of Rs 4 lakh to each family whose house has been fully damaged and Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each person who has been killed in the violence.

On Tuesday, just as Cheenath’s counsel was mentioning the matter before the Bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, the counsel for Central Government intervened and told the court that the Union Home Secretary has already talked to senior state Government functionaries regarding the issue. The Centre has said that it favours a CBI probe and has asked the state Government to take action to bring the law and order situation under control.

The Centre has also provided 33 additional companies of paramilitary forces, including six of the Rapid Action Force, to deal with the situation, the Home Ministry said.

On Tuesday, even as the state Government appointed retired Orissa High Court judge and former Lokpal Sarat Chandra Mohapatra to head the judicial probe into the killing and communal clashes, violence spread to new areas in Koraput district where the authorities had relaxed curfew for a few hours in view of Ganesh puja on Wednesday. In Ganjam district, a prayer hall was set on fire. Two prayer houses were attacked in Jeypore block of Koraput. Nevertheless, the Chief Minister claimed that the situation in Kandhamal and Koraput was under control.

... contd.