The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday appointed controversial former Bastar Inspector General of Police SRP Kalluri as the head of the Economic Offences Wing and the Anti-Corruption Bureau in state capital Raipur.

Kalluri, who has been accused of human rights violations in the past, had been transferred out of Bastar in February 2017 after a mob attacked activist and scholar Bela Bhatia. He was posted in the training department in the police headquarters. A month later, he was sent notices for indiscipline after he attended an event where a police officer said human rights activists should be crushed on the roads.

A leaked internal memo of the Central Bureau of Investigation showed that the agency suspected Kalluri’s involvement in the violence that took place in three Adivasi villages in 2011. The villagers of Tadmetla, Morpalli and Teemapuram alleged the security forces burnt down over 300 homes, killed three men and raped three women in the course of an anti-Maoist operation. Kalluri, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Dantewada, was the officer responsible for the operation.

The National Human Rights Commission has earlier sent Kalluri notices for hearings into allegations of human rights violations, but he has avoided them, citing personal reasons. The Congress government led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was widely expected to investigate Kalluri’s track record of alleged human rights violations. In October 2016, as the state Congress president, Baghel had asked for Kalluri to be jailed. However, his government appears to have rewarded the controversial officer by appointing him to key posts.

State Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, when asked about the appointment, refused to comment. “Ask the chief minister,” he said. “The order of the transfer file has come from his office.”

Scroll.in has sent questions to the Chief Minister’s Office through his advisors. This story will be updated if and when a response comes.