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Soni Sori

 Soni Sori (born c. 1975[2]) is an Adivasi school teacher and a suspected maoist from Chhattisgarh, who was arrested by Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 for acting as a conduit for extortion money being paid by Essar Group to the Naxalite[3][4] during which she has alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police.[5]

Who Is Soni Sori?

  • A woman who juggled several roles - a tribal journalist, activist, teacher, mother of three young kids...
  • A woman who dared to speak against the interests of the Chattisgarh State and mining companies.
  • A woman who did not succumb to the emotional, physical, sexual harassment targeted at breaking her spirits in the jail. She, instead, knocked at the conscience of the world outside.


Background and Family

Sori's father, Mundra Ram, is a former sarpanch of their home village of Bade Bedma. He was shot in the leg by Naxalite rebels in June 2011.[6] Sori's mother had fallen ill after Sori's arrest and died in 2012.[7][2] Sori has three children.[2] As of March 2012, her husband, a driver, had been detained for one year on charges of collaboration with the Maoist rebels.[5]

Arrest and alleged torture

In July 2010, warrants were first issued against Soni, along with her husband and nephew, for an attack on a local Indian National Congress leader, Avdesh Gautam. In the attack, Gautam escaped any hurt but his son was injured.[8] On September 9, 2011, Chhattisgarh Police claims to have busted an exchange of extortion money from the Essar Group to the the Maoist group CPI (Maoist). Earlier, WikiLeaks had also revealed that the Essar Group pays a significant amount of protection money to Maoists to safeguard its operations in the state.[9] The police had claimed the steel company was paying the Maoists to buy peace and safeguard its iron ore slurry pipeline from Dantewada.[10] According to the police, along with her nephew Lingaram Kodopi, Sori was slated to collect INR 15 lakh from Essar contractor B K Lala at Palnar weekly market in Dantewada on September 9. The police claims it arrested Lala and Kodopi from the bazaar, but due to chaos in the market, Sori gave them the slip.[11] Soni Sori was arrested by Delhi Police on 4 October 2011, on the charges of being a courier between the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Essar Group, which has mining assets in Chhatisgarh. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Delhi, Ashok Chand said that they had arrested her on the request of Chhattisgarh Police.[12][13] She was accused of carrying 1.5 million Indian rupees (US $30,000) from the mining company Essar to the insurgents as part of an extortion scheme,[5] and had been wanted by police since the arrest of her nephew Lingaram Kodopi, who was also charged with participation.[14] After her arrest, on the same day, she was produced before Saket (Delhi) Sessions Court before a Duty Magistrate and was sent to judicial custody. She was booked under various sections including extortion, criminal conspiracy and unlawful activities.[15][16] However all the three accused parties - Soni, banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Essar Group have denied the charges.[13]
Soni Sori was transferred to the custody of Chhattisgarh state police in Dantewada. She was then interrogated on 8 and 9 October, during which time she alleges that she was stripped naked and tortured with electric shocks[5] at the orders of then-district police superintendent Ankit Garg.[17] She wrote to her lawyer that she had been forced to stand naked while "(Superintendent of Police) Ankit Garg was watching me, sitting on his chair... While looking at my body, he abused me in filthy language and humiliated me."[18] She alleged that he then sent three men into the room to sexually assault her.[18] Sori was subsequently hospitalized at Kolkata Medical College Hospital, where doctors removed stones that had been inserted into her vagina and rectum.[19] Garg has "categorically denied" Sori's allegations against him.Activists shocked at gallantry award for Chhattisgarh cop - The Hindu Last Retrieved 8 February 2013
On 8 January 2013, Supreme Court of India ordered to to transfer of Soni Sori from the Raipur Central Jail to the Jagdalpur Jail. Sori had complained of sexual harassment from jail officials at the Raipur prison. The order was passed after lawyers who appeared for Chhattisgarh government were not opposed to the plea.[20] As of 8 February 2012, she and her nephew, Lingaram Kodopi, remain detained with the inquiries continuing.[21]
Her case has been repeatedly listed up in the Supreme Court but has been postponed every time.[22]

 
We Rise for Soni Sori because:

  1. Far from being an oppressed and downtrodden woman, as an outspoken critic of the state policies, the mining companies, and the Maoists, Soni Sori is being punished for exerting her democratic right to speak out in defence of her adivasi community and their traditional lands rather than for a crime she has not even been tried for.
  2. She is being punished by those who would not have the authority to mete out punishment even if she were guilty of a crime and the form of her punishments are not to be found in any penal code anywhere in the world.
  3. If the Indian government is not willing to protect women from the illegal actions of its own agents when in their custody, then what message is it sending out to Indian men – that women are fair game just for going out or speaking out?
  4. The Indian state not only seems to be failing to protect women from sexual and other types of violence, but is in fact sanctioning, indeed rewarding such crimes when they are committed by its employees and representatives to silence women who speak out in defence of human rights.

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