Karchi, Chattisgarh.
On 5 July 2011, Meena Khalkho, a 16-year-old adivasi girl, left home to visit her friend. She did not return home that evening. The next morning, a police officer informed her worried parents – father Buddheshwar and mother Guttigari – that Meena was in the hospital, hurt. But when they reached the hospital, they found her dead.
The police accused Meena of being a Maoist, an extremist who waged war against the state. They claimed that she died in the Nawadih village, where the police engaged in intense gunfire with 30-35 Maoists.
However, the locals deny the police’s claim. They heard only three gunshots that morning – not an intense exchange of gunfire. A post mortem revealed semen in Meena’s dead body. When journalists asked questions about the possibility or rape and murder, the then home minister of Chattisgarh berated her as being “habitual at sex.”
Four years later, in April 2015, a judicial commission set up to investigate the case found the truth: Meena was not a Maoist. She was not waging war against the state; the police fabricated the story. The report submitted by the commission stated:
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