Chhattisgarh: HC rejects bail pleas of Soni Sori, nephew

Bilaspur: Chhattisgarh High Court today rejected the bail plea of tribal teacher Soni Sori and her nephew Lingaram Kodopi, who were arrested for allegedly receiving money on behalf of Maoists from a corporate house in Chhattisgarh.

“A single bench of Justice Prashant Mishra rejected the bail application on Monday, observing that allegations against them were of a serious nature,” Sori’s counsel Shishir Dixit said.

36-year-old Sori and her activist-nephew Kodopi (25) were arrested on charges of acting as Maoist conduits in alleged payouts of protection money by the Essar group to Maoists.

According to the police, Kodopi and B K Lala, a building contractor with Essar Steel Ltd, were nabbed with Rs 15 lakh cash, which was allegedly meant to be paid to Maoist guerrillas on 9 September, 2011, from a weekly market at Palnar village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

Police had claimed that the recovered cash was protection money allegedly originating from the Essar group and Kodopi had received it on behalf of the Maoists.

The police had claimed that Sori was also associated with Kodopi, but she managed to flee the spot.

Later, she was arrested on 4 October, 2011, in New Delhi and Essar Steel Ltd’s General Manager DVCS Verma was also arrested in this connection.

However, the Dantewada district court had granted bail to GM Verma and contractor BK Lala.

PTI