Bastar: Bastar top cop DIG Sunder Raj Kalluri who threatened activists sent on medical leave. Kalluri had skipped a NHRC hearing saying he was on sick leave. DIG Sunder Raj takes charge of the Bastar Range.

This comes in the aftermath of several complaints by activists, lawyers and human rights defenders who said they have received a string of abusive and threatening messages purportedly from phone numbers belonging to Kalluri.

Their ‘crime’: sending messages of concern to Kalluri regarding the hounding of the activist Bela Bhatia. Bhatia, an independent researcher, was threatened by a mob at her home near Bastar, virtually forcing her to leave, supposedly because she was part of an effort to uncover alleged human rights abuses by security forces.