On Saturday, November 23, we were standing in front of a tiny hamlet of four houses called Peetabailu, in Udupi district, where just a few days earlier, the police had gunned down Vikram Gowda, a Maoist rebel from the Gowdalu Scheduled Tribe. He was armed, according to the police, and exchanged fire with them during the encounter on November 18.
In the days following the encounter, several prominent civil society members and activists questioned the police narrative and suspected that the gunfight was staged. Even as the government justified the police action, we formed an independent group to conduct a fact-finding mission. Four of us, theatreperson Kavya Achyut, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Dakshina Kannada district secretary Muneer Katipalla, and Democratic Youth Federation of India member (DYFI) Nitin Bangera, reached the area of the alleged encounter on November 23 and spent the whole day talking to residents of Peetabailu, Kudlu, and Kabbinale villages in Udupi district. Our visit coincided with that of the two civil society members of the state government-appointed committee for the surrender and rehabilitation of Maoists.
The four brothers from the Malekudiya tribe who had built the Peetabailu hamlet were nowhere to be seen. As the two groups stood there talking to one another, trying to understand the lay of the land, CPI (Marxist) leader Muneer Katipalla broke away and went to the neighbouring Malekudiya house to speak to its residents. Standing in the courtyard, he called out, “Is anyone there?” but no one came out. Suspecting the house might have been vacated, he tried to peer inside by pushing aside a tarpaulin sheet hanging from the tile-roofed house's hook.
Suddenly, the barrel of a rifle was pointed at Muneer Katipalla’s chest, and a harsh voice rang out, demanding “Password.” Only a pair of eyes and the gun barrel were visible to Muneer. Unfazed by the gun aimed at his chest, Muneer said, “What password? We are activists,” and called us over.
The gun pointed at Muneer belonged to an Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) officer. Another 15 to 20 ANF commandos, armed with AR rifles, AK-47s, and Excalibur rifles, were inside the Malekudiya house. It was evident that they had been ordered to allow only those who knew the secret police code.
It was a hair-raising start to our independent inquiry into the Vikram Gowda “encounter.”
A day before we arrived in Peetabailu, the police had escorted a group of journalists to the crime scene and briefed them about the alleged encounter. However, there was no permission for an independent fact-finding team like ours. The spot was also barred for local residents and even government officials from the health, education, and revenue departments.
We defied the restrictions and entered the house without police permission. It helped immensely that the government team was visiting at the same time as us.
The ANF trooper took his finger off the trigger. His colleagues did not slap us with a case or raise any further objection to our presence—probably because it was the ANF commandos who had illegally taken over the house.
The house in question belongs to Narayana Malekudiya. He is one of 11 siblings, none of whom is a police official. Yet, the police had made Narayana Malekudiya vacate his house and had been living there for several days, forcing him to seek shelter elsewhere.
The police claim that the “encounter” occurred at the house of Narayana’s brother, Jayant Malekudiya, who lives next door to him. The hut of another brother, Sudhakar Malekudiya, is a few paces away. Now, after evicting them from their homes, the police are camping out in Narayana and Sudhakar’s homes, while the Malekudiyas are wandering in the forests and seeking shelter with relatives.
“My wife and I leave the house at 7 am and return by 7 pm. We have to walk 8 km to work as labourers. On the evening of November 18 (the day of the encounter), when we returned, the police stopped us not far from our house and told us not to go home. Since then, we haven't been home,” said Narayana Malekudiya.
It might have been acceptable to evacuate the Malekudiyas from their homes for their own safety around the time of the encounter. But how did the police get authorisation to continue staying in the tribal hamlet several days after the operation? Around 15-20 of them were still living in his house when we visited, helping themselves to the food and killing and cooking the chickens that, according to Narayana, had been raised as offerings for the daivas (deities). It is forbidden to kill and eat these chickens, he said.
Sudhakar Malekudiya’s house has been turned into a storeroom for their expensive coats, accessories, and branded trousers—items that would be unimaginable to own for the forest-dwelling Malekudiyas.
Police complaint and reality
The police version of the alleged encounter is inconsistent with the lay of the land and what the Malekudiyas told us, raising doubts that the police action was indeed carried out in self-defence as they claimed.
The police say that Vikram Gowda faced off with them at Jayant Malekudiya’s house and that they hid in the bushes. However, there are no bushes in front of Jayant Malekudiya’s house—only a garden and an open field. Had the police truly been hiding in the bushes, it would have taken them some time to come from that location to the house where Vikram Gowda allegedly was. If the police attempted an attack from vehicles, Vikram Gowda would not only be able to see them coming, but he would also have had enough time to escape.
In his complaint, the ANF Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Raghavendra Naik says that the police had received a tip-off that Maoists were expected to arrive at Peetabailu in Nadpalu village around 5 pm. “We waited in the forest area for an ambush. Around 6 pm, Vikram Gowda and three others, armed with guns, arrived. Aware that they were Maoists, we shouted, ‘We are police officers; surrender.’ But they responded by shouting ‘Maoism Zindabad’ and began firing at us. Vikram Gowda and others kept firing at us. In self-defence, we shot at them. Vikram Gowda was hit and fell to the ground. The others continued firing and escaped into the forest. We seized a 9 mm carbine from near Vikram's body,” the complaint said.
Raghavendra Naik was armed with an AR rifle, while the rest of the ANF commandos had AK-47s and Excalibur rifles. An exchange of fire like the one described in the FIR should have left the house, the surrounding garden, and bushes riddled with bullet holes and bullets. But we saw no such sight. According to the FIR, the police seized a 9 mm carbine from near Vikram Gowda’s body.
The police’s claims in the FIR and their statements to the press do not offer any explanations for these discrepancies at the actual site of the alleged encounter.
Surveillance, rumour and police patrolling
The Malekudiyas of Peetabailu told us that police vehicles were seen in the village the day before the encounter, and the police made no attempt to hide their presence. This raises the question of how the Maoists approached an area which was crawling with cops.
“The police vehicles came on Sunday evening,” said Anand Malekudiya. “Even on Monday morning, many police vehicles passed on the road that goes to Jayant’s house,” said Satish Malekudiya, Jayant’s nephew. All three houses in Peetabailu were empty at the time the police claimed the encounter occurred. I found both of these details surprising.
From conversations with former Maoists over the years, I’ve learnt that Maoists carefully plan any trip for rations, water, or even to charge their phones. They carry out surveillance to check for the presence of strangers, police activity, or events outside of daily activities organised in the village. If a house is empty – as the three houses in Peetabailu were – they are unlikely to approach it for supplies.
Other developments in the area days before the encounter raise many questions that the police and government must answer.
Ajjoli Shekhar, a resident of Kudlu village which is 20 km from Hebri town, told us that 10 days before the alleged encounter, combing operations were carried out in Koppa and Sringeri in Chikkamagalur district, Kabbinale and Hebri in Udupi district, and Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada district. “Rumour was rife that two or three people, including Vikram Gowda, had been arrested in Dharmasthala, Koppa, or Sringeri. Suddenly, the encounter took place,” said Shekar.
According to media reports, the ANF police allegedly arrested two suspected Maoists in Dharmasthala on November 8—a good ten days before the alleged encounter. The police have made no public statements regarding the two arrests, raising doubts about whether one of them could have been Vikram Gowda.
Some days later, on November 12, an FIR was filed in Jayapura police station in Chikkamagalur district based on a complaint from an ANF sub-inspector. According to the FIR, the police raided a house in the forest area where they believed Maoists were hiding. Two armed individuals were outside, and two others, also armed, were inside. When the police approached the house, the Naxals fled into the forest. On searching the house, the police found two guns. The escaped Naxals were identified as Mundagaru Latha and Jayanna.
These incidents raise several questions. Is there a connection between the arrests of two suspected Maoists in Dharmasthala, and the alleged encounter of Vikram Gowda on November 18? Did the police detain suspected Maoists in the Jayapura incident who then led them to Vikram Gowda?
Senior police officers, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Home Minister G Parameshwara have all defended the alleged encounter. Parameshwara even went to the extent of saying that had the police not fired, the Maoists would have killed the police. The government has also rejected the demand for a judicial inquiry.
However, the National Human Rights Commission had in 1997 issued detailed guidelines regarding encounter deaths and any other death that occurs in police custody. The guidelines state that an FIR should be registered against all police personnel involved in the alleged encounter, and the inquiry must be handed over to an independent investigating agency such as the CID.
As per the NHRC, within 24 hours of an encounter, the police must submit a full report to the National Human Rights Commission.
Apart from this, a magisterial inquiry and a departmental inquiry must also be conducted against the police officers who carried out the encounter, and they must face disciplinary proceedings until proven innocent.
At present, there is no indication that any of these guidelines have been followed.
Encounters, tribals and forests
While the veracity of the police claims about the encounters can only be known if there is an impartial inquiry, the encounter must be seen in the context of the recent history of the region, which has put tribal Malekudiya people on a path of agitation against the government. They have been opposing the recommendations of the Kasturirangan committee for several years, resisting the state government’s bid to evict them from the forests on one pretext or the other.
A high-level working group led by space scientist K Kasturirangan submitted a report to the Union government in 2013, recommending that 37% of the Western Ghats be declared as eco-sensitive. In Karnataka, a 20,668 sq km area would be declared as an eco-sensitive area (ESA), affecting development in 1,576 villages. Since 2013, the Union government has issued six notifications of ESAs, including the latest one on July 31 this year, which stoked anxiety among people living in the area.
In the past year, many protests and gram sabhas organised in the Malnad region have opposed the Kasturirangan report. Several news reports about these protests carry statements from participants of these meetings warning government officials that they would have to become Naxals if the Kasturirangan report is implemented. That they made such statements indicates the strong opposition to the Kasturirangan report and the fears of eviction. In one of the Malekudiya houses we visited, we found a pamphlet of a meeting organised by the Malekudiya Sangha to discuss land reforms.
The encounter and related events have created fear and are perceived to be an extension of the state government’s agenda to wipe out any opposition to the Kasturirangan report.
“The Malekudiyas are naive. They don’t raise questions about anything except their land. Even if the police ill-treat their neighbours over the Naxal issue without provocation, they would not question the police about the violence. But now, a Malekudiya house was chosen to be the centre of these so-called anti-Naxal operations to prevent them from even questioning their eviction from their own land and agricultural fields,” says Ajjoli Shekar, a Malekudiya leader and resident of Kudlu village.
The Kuthlur struggle and harassment
The struggle of the Malekudiya community in Kuthlur village of Dakshina Kannada district to overcome harassment by the Forest Department has become a model for forest dwellers living a hundred kilometres away in the Hebri area of Udupi. As soon as they saw us, many Malekudiyas of Hebri asked in Tulu, “Were you not the ones who were part of the struggle for Vithala Malekudiya?” and spoke to us as though we were long-lost friends.
Vithal Malekudiya was a postgraduate journalism student at Mangalore University who was arrested by the Anti-Naxal Force in March 2012 from his village Kuthlur. He was living in the university hostel in Mangaluru when he got a call from his neighbours telling him that the ANF had assaulted his father. He rushed home in fear, only to be arrested by the ANF, who listed out his ‘Maoist’ possessions: school books, tea powder, steel plates, cups, a broken plastic torch, and binoculars bought from the temple fair in Dharmasthala. The Malekudiyas of Kuthlur took on the Forest Department and staged several protests against the police action, which eventually resulted in an end to the harassment. A Kannada feature film was also made based on the way he was wrongly framed by the police and acquitted.
The stories of the Malekudiyas of Kuthlur from a decade ago were similar to the experiences that the residents of the Hebri area told us.
One Malekudiya person after another told us varying versions of the same story: “In Kabbinale and Nadpalu villages, we face brutality from the police and forest officers. It is simply impossible to gather forest produce. However, after the Vithala Malekudiya struggle, we heard that they could collect forest products in Belthangady without fear. We need such a movement here too.”
Praveen Malekudiya, a relative of Vikram Gowda by marriage, felt that if it hadn’t been for the harassment by the forest officers, his uncle might still be alive.
“If there had been no cruelty from the Forest Department, my uncle Vikram Gowda would still be alive today. In the past, forest officers would assault us without provocation whenever we collected forest produce. They repeatedly arrested people who worked to earn a living, and in frustration, they were forced into a path that led to their deaths. I have vague memories of seeing Maoists when I was small, but later I only saw them as corpses. To protect our family and community, he (Vikram) had to sacrifice himself,” Praveen told us.
After Vikram Gowda went underground, his sister Suguna Gowda alleged that her family continued to face harassment at the hands of the police and the Forest Department.
The police arrested two of Suguna’s uncles and her husband, while the forest department has collected fines of around Rs 65,000, which is an enormous amount for a family that walks long distances in the forest to earn enough even for a single meal.
In many of these villages, the forest officers and police end up becoming judge, jury and executioner. A notice issued by a forest officer shown to us by one of the Malekudiyas is telling.
The Hebri Range Forest Officer issued a notice on January 13, 2020, to “criminal (xx) son of (xx), resident of Megadde Kollangaru Jeddu in Nadalu village, Hebri taluk.” This was issued under Rule 74(1) of the Karnataka Forest Manual, which prescribes the procedure for compound offences. Most forest offences under the Karnataka Forests Act 1963 are compoundable — meaning that the accused person can pay a fine and get the case withdrawn, while refusal to pay the fine would mean that the case would proceed to court.
The notice said that the person in question was to pay a “compromise fee” of Rs 5,000 and come to an agreement according to an order issued by the divisional officer on January 2, 2020. “You are directed to come to the (mentioned office) within 30 days of the issue of the notice, pay the requisite amount, and obtain a receipt. If you fail to do so, prosecution will be initiated against you according to the rules.”
Who is the forest officer to declare Malekudiyas “criminals” without even conducting an inquiry? Thus, the Malekudiyas live in a place where the Constitution and the rule of law do not appear to be in force.
Praveen, Suguna’s son-in-law, alleged that the forest officers continually harass them for collecting forest products. Malekudiyas collect fallen logs for firewood, which are abundant on the edges of the forests.
He told us that a forest officer once issued a notice and demanded Rs 25,000 as a fine. “We live in the forest and earn a living by doing daily wage work. How could we pay Rs 25,000? I told the officer, ‘Do what you want; I won't pay the fine.’” Then something bizarre happened, he said. “A forest officer gave me Rs 25,000 and told me to deposit it at the forest office. After I deposited it, the officer began harassing me, demanding the money back. Now, I still owe Rs 5,000. I am being harassed as if I’m a debtor for a crime I didn’t commit,” Praveen told us.
After Vikram Gowda’s killing, the police demanded money from them to transport his body, his family said. “Even though Vikram Gowda’s body was lying in our village, the police did not inform us about his death. We learnt about it from TV news and WhatsApp messages. It was only the next day that the police gave information to Suresh (Vikram’s younger brother),” Suguna told us.
After Vikram’s death, the police arranged to transport the body from Peetabailu to Manipal Hospital in Manipal for the post-mortem. “The ambulance bill from Manipal to Nadpalu village for transporting the body was Rs 8,000. They demanded Rs 10,000. While the body was lying there, the police tried to bargain with us. They even made us pay for taking his body from the site of the encounter to the hospital for post-mortem in an ambulance,” said Suguna. Even after the post-mortem, the body was not handed over until all arrangements for the final rites were made.
As in Kuthloor, here too, the harassment by the Forest Department and the ANF must come to an end.
Welfare measures
During our interaction, KP Sripal and Parvatheesha Biladale, the two civil society members of the government-appointed Maoist surrender committee, said that they weren’t convinced about the government’s conduct.
“Naxals are very few in number. We should try and persuade them to join the mainstream. Shooting and killing them is no solution,” Sripal told us. He and Parvatheesha gathered testimonies and evidence regarding whether or not the encounter was real or staged but refused to comment on it.
They also looked into the welfare measures provided by the government for Naxal-affected areas. They have since written to the state government about welfare measures that can be implemented to improve the lives of the Malekudiyas.
The Malekudiyas told the committee that Naxals had not visited the village in 15 years and accused the police of creating a false narrative.
The committee members requested the Malekudiya community to inform them if any Naxals contacted them regarding food and supplies. “We will not get them arrested. Instead, we will try and help them set up suitable living arrangements,” one of the members said.
To this, the Malekudiyas replied, “We don’t even have enough food for ourselves; how can we give food to anyone else? Our position is such that we struggle for even one square meal a day.” At this, the committee members were visibly moved. Sripal and Parvatheesha offered financial assistance to some of the Malekudiyas in a personal capacity and also called up officials and directed them to provide certain basic amenities.
Naveen Soorinje is a senior Kannada journalist.
A version of this article was originally published in Vartha Bharati. The original article can be read here.