Robin Hood like Odisha tribal leader walks out of jail after 6 years

On Friday night, quickly after he was launched from the Koraput jail, Nachika Linga was given an emotional welcome by folks of Bhaliaput village in Narayanpatna block of Koraput district. Back residence after a painful six years in jail as an undertrial with 45 instances towards him, the 47-year-old Linga hugged tight his mom Juro Nachika, whom he had not seen since he went behind bars. He didn’t sleep all the Friday night time, busy chatting along with his mom and members of the family, attempting to make amends for the misplaced years and recounting his jail experiences.

Declared the most-wanted Maoist by Odisha police greater than a decade in the past for attempting to transform Narayanpatna block of Koraput right into a Maoist fortress, Linga, a Kui tribal, was launched two days after the Orissa excessive court docket granted him bail within the final of the 45 instances with costs starting from loot to waging struggle towards the state.

In 44 instances, the trial courts acquitted him resulting from lack of proof and witnesses whereas he continued to be behind bars in a 2009 case of assault on Narayanpatna police station. After a nudge by the Supreme Court final month, the Orissa excessive court docket early this week granted him bail. On Friday, the trial court docket of Koraput district decide launched him on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with two individuals standing as guarantor, a little bit greater than 6 years after he surrendered earlier than Odisha police.

“I would like to thank the government and the law. I could become free due to the blessings of everyone. I would continue to work for people,” mentioned a much-mellowed Linga, the poster-boy of a tribal motion that threatened to show Narayanpatna block right into a Maoist fortress a decade in the past.

Under the banner of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh, a Maoist-backed outfit, the tribals of Narayanpatna block in 2006 launched a motion to drive the moneylenders and landlords of the realm whom they known as ‘Sundi-Sahukar-Sarkar’ (liquor vendor-landlord-government). Led by Linga, CMAS mobilised over 30,000 tribals within the block with the slogan ‘mada mukti, jami mukti and goti mukti’(freedom from liquor, freedom from usurping of tribal lands and freedom from bonded labour).

In his 2020 ebook, “Land alienation and politics of tribal exploitation in India”, Surath Malik, a political science professor of Midnapore’s Vidyasagar University wrote that utilizing the age-old difficulty of tribal land alienation by non-tribals within the block, CMAS instantly grew to become common.

“Of the 43,000-odd population in the block, around 82% were tribals. Though it was a Scheduled Area and tribal land could not be transferred under Odisha Scheduled Areas Transfer of Immovable Property by Scheduled Tribes Regulation, 1956, the executive could not properly implement it. The landlords from the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh joined the liquor vendors of Narayanpatna area and exploited the tribals forcing them to become daily wage labourers in their own lands. Though the tribals in Narayanpatna were 85% in population, the actual land possessed by them was about 10–15%. The tribals of Narayanpatna under the banner of the CMAS launched the movement to drive the moneylenders and landlords out of the Narayanpatna area and posted red flags on the land,” Malik wrote in his ebook.

Like his father and grandfather, Linga too began as a bonded labourer working underneath an higher caste landlord in Bhaliaput village of Narayanpatna block for a wage of Rs 5 per day. Five generations of Linga household have been bonded labourers, however he was decided to not let that proceed and fled to neighbouring Parvatipuram of Andhra Pradesh in early 2000, the place he in all probability got here in touch with Maoists. He returned residence a number of years later.

In 2006, Linga grew to become one of many key members of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha, a tribal physique that had Maoist hyperlinks. The Ryot Coolie Sangha, a tribal physique, had been banned in Andhra Pradesh in August 2005 over its alleged hyperlinks with Maoists. In anticipation of the same ban by the Odisha authorities, the RCS-Koraput modified its identify to Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh in 2006.

Under Linga, the tribals of Narayanpatna launched a motion to drive the moneylenders and landlords away, bringing increasingly tribals into the fold of CMAS.

In 2006, Genua Vahini, the militant brigade of CMAS led by Linga captured some 50 acres of non-tribal land within the Podapadar gram panchayat after which he was charged with a number of instances together with that of waging struggle towards the State and despatched to jail. He was launched in 2008. In that interval, CMAS had chased away higher caste landlords and distributed round 3000 acres of land among the many landless poor tribals. The CMAS activists would publish pink flags on the occupied lands, and reduce crops from the acquired land regardless of the presence of police power.

“For tribals, he had become some sort of Robin Hood who would get their land back by terrorising the upper caste people as well as Dalits,” mentioned a senior CRPF official posted in Koraput in mid 2000.

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Activist Prafulla Samantra, who for lengthy has supported Linga, says in his quick stint with CMAS motion, Linga had achieved what was regarded as unimaginable. “Alcoholism is believed to be the bane of the tribal society and that leads to indebtedness and prolonged exploitation by the ruling elite in the area. By taking on the liquor mafia, he ensured prohibition in Narayanpatna. It was his success in the anti-liquor movement that led him to the land reclamation movement. In many ways he was perhaps the most popular tribal leader to have emerged from the grassroots in undivided Koraput,” mentioned Samantra.

Though Linga was on a path of confrontation with the state, police officers who labored in Koraput through the CMAS days mentioned the federal government needed a political decision. However, the state authorities shut out the concept of a political decision when a landmine blast on the Laxmipur-Narayanpatna highway close to Palur killed 9 policemen of the Odisha Special Striking Force.

“When the policemen were killed in the blast, any chance of a political resolution to the tribal movement was swiftly over. It was just an overground arm of Maoists. The situation turned worse in November 2009 when Linga led over 1,000 tribals under the banner of CMAS to launch an attack on Narayanpatna police station, in which 2 CMAS leaders were killed. He was declared the most wanted man by the Odisha police and posters with his photo were all over Koraput,” mentioned deputy inspector basic of police Anup Kumar Sahoo, who labored as SP Koraput throughout that point.

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After the assault on Narayanpatna police station, Linga went underground for 5 years and stored giving police the slip whereas the CMAS unleashed their fury within the area, killing anybody who opposed the organisation, usually slitting their throats. Linga quickly grew to become a divisional committee member of CPI(Maoist) until he fell out with them in 2012 after the kidnapping of Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka. The tribal MLA was launched after extended negotiations, however led to souring of relations between Maoists and Linga.

Without the lively assist of CMAS, Maoists couldn’t stay lively in Narayanpatna which they needed to make a pink fortress. The schism between Maoists and Linga helped police achieve an higher hand within the treacherous area. In October 2014, Linga lastly surrendered earlier than Odisha police and was charged with 45 instances together with homicide and waging struggle towards the state. Like most instances involving Maoists, nobody got here to testify towards Linga resulting in his acquittal.

Activist Samantra mentioned after his launch on bail, it might be tough for Linga to revive the motion. “In 2009, the movement had a momentum of its own. But once he went to jail, his morale may not be the same. Besides, many of his followers have surrendered before police. But the spark of resistance that he lit in the tribal minds a decade ago may light up again in subsequent years as the ground realities have not changed in the district,” mentioned Samantra.