Nagpur, Jan. 23: Bela Bhatia, noted human rights activist, academic and researcher, was today intimidated and served an ultimatum by a mob to vacate her rented house within 24 hours in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
Bhatia was warned of dire consequences by a group of around 30 men if she did not vacate the house and leave Parpa village on the fringes of Jagdalpur town. Several rights activists had been hounded out of the region in the past in a similar manner.
Police reached Bhatia's house within half an hour of the mob descending on the place but did not arrest any of them.
Bhatia and her landlady, a native tribal, had to sign a letter that she had to vacate the place and leave the region within 24 hours - by 6 pm on January 24. The mob threatened to burn the house down if she did not vacate, she said.
Bhatia had accompanied a National Human Rights Commission team in the region to record the statements of rape and sexual assault survivors who had filed FIRs against police personnel.
Earlier this month, the NHRC released its report following investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault against security troops. The report indicted Chhattisgarh police personnel of rape and sexual assault on at least 16 Adivasi women between October 2015 and March 2016. Bhatia had helped the team record the statements of the victims.
Bhatia and her associate, economist Jean Dreze, had last March been similarly intimidated by men belonging to a police-backed vigilante group, Samajik Ekta Manch.
Bhatia, a PhD from Cambridge University, has been living in Bastar since 2007, researching counter-insurgency. She was also a member of the Planning Commission panel that studied problems of governance in the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE)-affected regions in the country.
Today noon, the group of men barged into her house, located a few kilometres from the Parpa police station. She has been living in this house since December 1, 2015.
"Somehow I persuaded them to allow me to change after which I told them I would leave," Bhatia told The Telegraph over phone.
She said the men were not local villagers. While they waited outside, Bhatia managed to call Bastar collector Amit Kataria, who informed the police superintendent of the incident.
Bhatia said the police reached within half an hour. The mob got the landlady to come out and asked her to make Bhatia vacate the place.
"I have not yet filed a complaint but I will be filing one soon," Bhatia said. "The mob was very belligerent and kept threatening to break the lock and burn the house down," she said.
The men left around 2.30pm but only after extracting a written assurance. In a note issued by her earlier, Bhatia said that her landlord and her sons had been called to the local police station on Sunday and told that they must ensure that Bhatia left the house immediately.
Contacted, the Bastar superintendent of police Narayan Das refused to comment on the issue. Das told local media in the evening that he had sent a team of policemen to Bhatia's house immediately after the collector informed him and provided her with security.
Attacks on human rights defenders, who have raised cases of police atrocities against Adivasis, have become the norm in conflict-ridden Bastar.
Last year, journalist Malini Subramaniam, lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal and AAP leader Soni Sori were not only intimidated and physically attacked but also hounded out of Bastar by vigilante groups that have allegedly been enjoying the tacit support of Bastar police.
Leader of Opposition T.S. Singhdeo said the current BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state were subverting democratic institutions and the rule of law. "The attack on Bela is troubling," he said. "The way the administration in Bastar is subverting the rule of law is having a ripple effect throughout the state."
