The Supreme Court (SC) directed the Chhattisgarh government on Monday to produce 12 persons who have been missing ever since they filed a petition seeking CBI probe into the killings of Dantewada villagers in an anti-Maoist operation. The SC has set a deadline of February 15.“We are shocked that such things are taking place while the matter is pending before us,” a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar observed.The petition holds the police responsible for the killing of seven adivasis of Gompad village as part of an anti-Maoist operation on October 1 last year. One of the petitioners Himanshu Kumar had stated that 28-year-old Sodi Sambo, a key witness under treatment for a bullet wound, was last seen at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.State’s lawyer Atul Jha, while denying that the state police abducted the innocents, said, “We will take all possible steps to produce the suspected missing persons.”According to Dantewada superintendent of police, Amresh Mishra, the victims’ bodies were exhumed by a team of doctors on January 23 under the supervision of the magistrate.However, noted civil rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves questioned the authority of the police to exhume the bodies. “The bodies constitute evidence that could be used against the police in this case,” he said. Exhuming the bodies when a petition is pending before SC for CBI probe amounts to tampering with evidence, he added.

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