The one-member judicial commission that probed the 2009 Madanwada Naxal strikes in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district which left 29 police personnel dead has severely criticised IPS officer Mukesh Gupta, who was then posted as the Inspector General of Police in the region, saying the command failure caused heavy loss to police force in the incident. The report of Justice Shambhu Nath Srivastava (retd) commission has hailed the then superintendent of police Vinod Kumar Choubey for fighting with Maoists despite their presence in large numbers and sacrificing his life. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday tabled the findings of the judicial panel in the state assembly along with his government's action taken report (ATR).
On July 12, 2009, twenty-nine police personnel, including then Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar Choubey, were killed in three separate Maoist strikes in Madanwada and nearby places under the Manpur police station limits in Rajnandgaon. IPS Gupta was then posted as the IG of the Durg police range under which the district falls. Over 10 years after the deadly attack, the Baghel-led Congress government constituted the judicial commission chaired by Justice Shambhu Nath Srivastava, a retired Judge of the Allahabad High Court, in January 2020 to probe the incident. The commission in its 109-page report drafted in Hindi, said, “had the commander/ the IG (Gupta) acted wisely or courageously, the result would have been different. But whatever he did was nothing but an act of cowardice, because he had sufficient time to call units of the Central Reserve Police Force and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) to use them (in the face-off). "It appears that he was too afraid for his life and at the same time, he pushed the SP to take on the Maoists. It has clearly come to fore in the statements that the IG remained seated inside the bullet-proof car and did nothing...” it said. The report stated that “If he (the IG) had shown courage, the Maoists would not have looted the arms, bullet-proof jackets and boots of the martyred personnel…Naxals had sent the video footage of their celebration after executing the incident which is part of the evidence records. It clearly highlights several instances of carelessness and negligence on the part of commander, Mukesh Gupta (IG Durg), in whose presence the entire massacre took place between 9:30 am to 5:15 pm". The report said that as per the records available, the police force present at the spot just watched as mute spectators and were at the receiving end. "They allowed the Maoists to do whatever they wanted..There is no doubt that some witnesses claimed to have opened fire on the Maoists but it did not have any impact on them (ultras).. If the police had fired on the Maoists, there would have been at least some deaths or injuries from their side as well. However, it is an accepted fact that neither any Maoists were killed nor sustained wounds,” it said. The report stated that despite knowing the large strength of Maoists, the then superintendent of police Choubey moved forward, fought with Maoists, and sacrificed his life while discharging his duties.
“In the incident, the carelessness of the commander (the then IG) concerned caused a huge loss. No commander should be forgiven for this failure ... The officer was completely ignorant of the ground level condition, The officer made a huge mistake in undertaking tasks without understanding the ground conditions and was completely unsuccessful in analysing it,” it said. The report said the then IG was asked to appear before the judicial panel to give his statement but he avoided and submitted an application seeking to remove the chairman of the commission. The judicial panel recommended that in future only those officers, who are trained in the counter-insurgency operation and competent, should be posted in Naxal-hit areas. Despite receiving information from the State Intelligence Branch (SIB) and intelligence department, the IG (Gupta) did not make an action plan in the Madanwada area, it said, suggesting that the commanders should draft an appropriate strategy after receiving intelligence inputs in future. The suggestions also include strengthening the communication system and intelligence gathering mechanism, deployment of adequate numbers of personnel in police stations located in core Maoist-hit areas, and setting up an Intelligence training centre in Chhattisgarh. Gupta, an influential police officer during the previous BJP government, was suspended in February 2019 after an FIR was registered against him for alleged criminal conspiracy and illegal phone-tapping during a probe in the civil supply corporation scam unearthed in 2015. Before his suspension, Gupta was posted as Special Director General of Police (SDGP).
PTI Inputs
