The Central Reserve Police Force has said that there were no “violations of human rights” during the Maoist attack in Chattisgarh’s Sukma district in April this year when 25 of its personnel were killed, PTI reported on Tuesday. The CRPF’s statement is in contradiction with Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu’s, who had said that the attack was a violation of human rights of the deceased jawans.

The CRPF was responding to an RTI inquiry made by human rights activist Venkatesh Nayak. It further refused to share its inquiry report into the incident with Nayak, citing confidential operational details.

“In the instant matter, there appears to be no violations of human rights as well as facts of the case do not attract allegations of corruption,” the CRPF said in its response. “Moreover, your application does not make any reference to such allegations. Hence, this department is not liable to provide any information in this regard to you under RTI Act 2005.”

What the petitioner had claimed:

Nayak had said that by denying that there was a human rights violation of the jawans, the CRPF was possibly doing “injustice to its own personnel”, PTI reported. “Why does the government and in this case, the CRPF, fight shy of treating these attacks as ‘human right violations’ of their personnel? Surely, there must be a reason for it,” he had said.

What Naidu had said:

On April 25, a day after the attack, Venkaiah Naidu had accused human rights activists of selective outrage. “While the nation was shocked by this killing and violence, the so called sympathisers and proponents of human rights have maintained baffling silence since yesterday,” he had said. “Why are the human rights activists silent when such inhuman acts are mindlessly committed by outlawed elements?”