Tanvi Pilane
Published on: March 16, 2022 at 13:38 IST
Tribal activist Soni Sori was acquitted on Tuesday by a Special Court in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada in a Sedition Case filed against her.
She had been accused of supplying money to Maoists, along with three others, including an Essar company official. She was arrested in 2011 in Delhi.
Sori has been raising issues of merciless killings in Bastar by Maoists and security forces. She has now been acquitted of all the cases lodged against her under the previous Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) regime.
A First Information Report (FIR) had been lodged against her by the Datenwada Police in September 2011 accusing that BK Lala, a contractor had paid her and her aide, Lingaram Kodopi, Rs. 15,00,000 to pay the Maoists for the Essar Company.
On January 28 the case had been transferred to the special court in Dantewada from a special NIA court in Jagdalpur.
The Court had held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against her and contradictory statements and been given by several of the witnesses.
The Court acquitted her and the three other accused due to the lack of proof.
The Court order read,
“The Prosecution has not been able to prove the charges against the accused beyond any objectionable doubt.”
The decision was welcomed by Sori, who alleged the Police of brutality towards her.
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