Tribal farmer lands in trouble for wearing an olive green shirt in VIZAG Agency
By Newsmeter Network Published on 9 Oct 2019 6:28 AM GMT
Highlights
* Police nabbed tribal farmer on suspicious of Maoist
* DSP asks local to not wear Olive Green costumes
Visakhapatnam: A tribal farmer landed in trouble for wearing an “olive green colour shirt” and black colour footwear at Vanabarangi village under Pedabayalu Mandal in Vizag Agency.
The security forces (police) took the farmer, V Ravi, into custody on suspicion that he is a Maoist. The forces spotted Ravi, who wore an olive green shirt and black footwear near the outskirts of the village on Tuesday.
Ravi purchased the shirt and footwear at a weekly market (Santha or Shandy in local parlance) citing that the items provide warmth and comfort during the rainy and winter season.
On Tuesday morning Ravi had gone to a nearby village wearing the shirt and footwear. When Ravi was returning to his hometown of Vanabarangi, the anti-Naxal teams spotted Ravi and took him into custody based on his attire.
Security forces questioned Ravi for hours to ascertain if he had any links with the banned CPI (Maoist). Later, they shifted him to Pedabayalu police station for further interrogation. Though Ravi claimed his innocence, the police refused to believe him.
"We came to know that police nabbed our uncle Ravi for wearing the olive green shirt which they believe makes him as Maoist. We rushed to the police station and produced Ravi's aadhar card, ration card, voter ID and few others before the police to claimed the innocence of our uncle" says K Babu Rao, a relative of Ravi.
The police released Ravi on Tuesday night after verifying the identity cards and confirmed that he is a farmer with no links to the red-rebels.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Paderu, VB Rajkamal said that the police grew suspicious of Ravi because he was wearing an olive green shirt. The Maoists used to wear olive green shirts which prompted them to question Ravi about his attire. We released Ravi after establishing that he is indeed a farmer with no connection to the Maoists, he added.
We are appealing to the tribals not to purchase and wear olive green shirts, which are available at the Weekly Markets in Vizag Agency. We are also chalking out plans to hold a meeting with traders to ask them not to sell olive green costumes, Rajkamal added.
