Dantewada based social activist Soni Sori has expressed fears that there might be a threat to her life. She said that on Monday, June 29, she had just alighted from her car when she was “almost hit by a Sumo car, in front of Dantewada Collector-SP’s house”.
45-year-old Soni Sori, who is a well known human rights defender in the region has been given Y-Category security cover. She says the incident on Monday has led her to fear for her life and that she may be targeted by the state police. She added that she had suspected that she was being followed by the police for the past few days. Her fears came true, she says, when she was almost run over by the vehicle. According to Sori she had been stopped from going to Sarkeguda on June 28, and was also not allowed to go to Bijapur to participate in a protest on June 29.
She recalled the events that unfolded in the morning on Monday, June 29 saying, “At around 10.30 A.M, when I left Geedam to meet my brother in Dantewada for some work, I realised I was being followed. First I was followed by some people riding on a motorcycle, then there was a car without a number plate that was tailing me. I decided to talk to them in front of the Dantewada Collector-SP’s bungalow.”
“They tried to run me over with the car,” alleged Soni Sori. “I gathered courage and challenged them loudly, and told them to kill me if they wanted to,” she says. She has said that she is convinced that the men in the car were from the police. “After the acid attack in 2016, I was given Y-category security,” she said, allegeding that the authorities have also been trying to disrupt her travels for quite some time now.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police of Dantewada district Abhishek Pallava, has said that any allegations that there was an attempt to run her over with a car are false. He said that Soni Sori was a Y-category protectee and “Her security is our responsibility. There has never been any restriction on going to any area in Dantewada. She had left Geedam without information, and keeping security in view the police headed to Dantewada to investigate. The jawans were on duty. She stopped her car, and flared up. If she wants to go anywhere without informing, then she must stop availing the security cover.”
Soni Sori has often said that she has allegedly been under the radar of Chhattisgarh police for many years now. She has publicly alleged harassment and torture. She was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate in 2019 elections and was arrested for allegedly “trying to hold a public meeting without permission” in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. According to a report by PTI, and carried by NDTV, Dr Abhishek Pallava had said, Sori was arrested from Palnar village under preventive sections 151, 107 and 116 of CrPC. She was later released on bail by a local court.
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