Revoke death sentence of Chilkari accused

HYDERABAD: Demanding that the death sentences on Jeeten Marandi and his four fellow activists who were pronounced guilty in the 2007 Chilkari case in Jharkhand in which 19 people were killed, be revoked and they be released immediately, revolutionary writer and poet Varavara Rao on Sunday said that the Centre must immediately call off  Operation ‘Green Hunt.’  He further demanded that army be withdrawn from the Dandakaranya region as per the Supreme Court orders.Speaking  at a press conference conducted by AP Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) here, he asked the central government for the revocation of death sentences awarded to Jeeten Marandi and his fellow activists.The Giridih district (Jharkhand) sessions court had sentenced the accused to death but Varavara Rao claimed that they were only activists who were working to promote awareness among tribals on their rights and responsibilities. Jeeten was a well-known adivasi cultural artiste and leader of Jharkhand Abhen (a cultural organisation), said V Raghunath general secretory of APCLC. He also added that Kula Nirmulana Porata Samithi president Duddu Prabhakar should be released immediately. They security forces arrested him on July 13 in Visakhapatnam. If anything happened to him, all communist parties will together start agitations and bandhs, he warned.  He said that APCLC will launch campaigns in AP, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for the revoking of the death sentences of the activists.