At least half a dozen police personnel, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, clashed with villagers in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district on Friday (July 24, 2026).
The police said that they were attacked by a mob when they had gone to arrest an accused in a pending criminal case. The villagers asserted that the police team was accompanying a survey team for land acquisition for mining, a claim contested by a senior police officer. “The situation escalated after the police attacked an elderly person.” according to the village Sarpanch.
The incident occurred in the morning in the Dharampur-Madannagar villages within the jurisdiction of Pratappur police station where the police team had gone to arrest some accused,
Surajpur Additional Superintendent of Police Yogesh Dewangan told reporters without adding the context or details of the case.
“We had anticipated that there could be resistance to the arrests and had reached the spot fully prepared. However, we did not expect the opposition to turn so violent. The villagers resisted the operation aggressively, leaving more than six police personnel injured,” he said.
The villagers hurled stones at the policemen and chased them with sticks, he added.
On a question referring to claims by villagers that the police deployment was linked to a survey of land for a proposed coal mining project in the area, S.P. Dewangan said there was no land survey team accompanying the force.
Babulal Poya, the Sarpanch of the village, said that a police team along with a survey team of the mining company arrived at the village around 3 a.m. and took away his elder son, Birendra. This sparked a protest by the villagers, which turned violent, he added.
“This morning the police team arrived and took away my son after asking him to accompany them to look for me. I wasn’t at home at that time as I go to my fields before the break of dawn. When I returned I learnt that Birendra had been taken away and the protests had started,” he said.
On how the whole episode was linked to mining, he said that the police were accompanied by the survey team who had come earlier too. “They had visited earlier this month too. The village has not given its NOC for mining, and this is a one-sided action by the government which is offering far less compensation than the market rates and is not even willing to discuss the issue,” he said, adding that the village, whose almost entire population comprises Gond tribals and the area is one of the tribal majority areas listed under the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
The Hindu made repeated attempts to reach Mr. Dewangan and the District SP Yogesh Patel, but they were unavailable for comment or an updated number of injured policemen even as there were reports of that number being higher than six.
Published – July 25, 2026 03:40 am IST
