Burning the effigies of opponents may be a common enough practice for political parties in India but in a first, uniformed security personnel in Chhattisgarh on Monday symbolically burnt mock-up versions of two petitioners who have moved the Supreme Court against police excesses in the state, three social and political activists who have been critical of human rights abuses and a journalist who was forced out of the region for reporting on state violence.

The police action comes two days after the Supreme Court took note of the fact that the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a chargesheet against seven former special police force officers (SPOs) – now renamed armed auxiliary forces – for attacking and burning adivasi villages in Tarmetla between March 11-16, 2011, and 26 former Salwa Judum activists for attacking Swami Agnivesh on March 26, 2011, when he tried to reach those villages for an independent investigation into the incident.