According to the information received,the Chhattisgarh Police have registered an FIR on September 16, 2019 at Kirandul police station of Dantewada district against Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia,Nanda,sarpanch of Kirandul village and her husband,Bhima,and 150-200 unnamed villagers for protesting against an alleged fake encounter in the region.

The FIR registered under IPC Section 188 relates to disobeying instruction issued by a public servant. They have been booked for allegedly holding a protest illegally and shouting slogans against the administration and the police in Dantewada during the Model Code of Conduct. According to the FIR, Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia"instigated tribal" from remote villages to gherao a police station in Kirandul in violation of prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC, which are in place because of the by-electionscheduled for September 23, 2019. According to the police,the protest obstructed operations of the police station, hence a FIR was registered.It is pertinent to mention here that two alleged Maoists, Lachu Mandavi and one Podiya Sori were killed in the encounter on the intervening night of September 13 and 14, 2019,in a forest near Kutrem village in the Kirandul police station area in Dantewadadistrict. Police claimed that both the Maoists were commanders of Malangir area committee of CPI (Maoist)carrying rewards of Rs fivelakh each for information leading to their capture.According to the activists, the purpose of the FIR is to counter their support for villagers who have been suspicious of the circumstances under which the saidencounter with alleged Maoists took place.Sources informed that Bela Bhatia first raised suspicions about the encounter and the death of the two on being fired uponby district reserve guards (DRG) personnel. The villagers also alleged that the two had in fact been murdered by the forces. On September 15, 2019,Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia visited the place where the alleged encounter took place. On September 16,2019,about 150-200villagers along withBela Bhatia and SoniSori, the sarpanch of the village and her husband,protested claiming that the encounter was fake and the killed were innocent villagers, not Maoists.Sources informed that on the evening of September 16, 2019,the two women activists along with the mother of the villager who was in custody and another villager had submitted a complaint against the extra-judicial killingof Podiya Sori and Lachchu Mandaviand disappearance of Ajay Telam in Kirandul police station. Instead of filing a FIR based on their complaint,the Kirandul police lodged a FIR against the two women activists and others that very evening.They have been wrongly accused of instigating and mobilising the few hundred people who had come on their own volition to Kirandul police station for a peaceful protest against this injustice and to secure the release of Ajay Telam from illegal police custody.It is clearly a retributive action by the police which was intendedto intimidate those speaking up for rightsand against extra-judicial killings.