Bela Bhatia and why the Chattisgarh police want her to leave

30 people arrived in a four-wheeler vehicle and some motorcycles, and threatened that they would burn down Bhatia’s house and kill her dog if she did not leave Bastar immediately, Bhatia has said. The group also allegedly barged into her house and threatened her landlady with dire consequences if she allowed Bhatia to stay.

Both the police inaction during the attack and the summoning of Bhatia’s landlord suggest the complicity of the police in the mob attack.

On January 7, the NHRC, investigating allegations of rape and sexual assault against security forces, released its report which found that the Chattisgarh state’s police personnel raped or sexually assaulted at least 16 Adivasi women between October 2015 to March 2016. Bhatia had helped the team to record the statements of the surviviors.

This is not the first time that Bhatia has been intimidated and threatened for staying in Bastar. The attack against her began in November 2015, when she helped Adivasi women file an FIR against the police for allegedly sexually assaulting them.