Lingaram Kodopi
Lingaram Kodopi is an Adivasi (indigenous) activist from the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and the nephew of Soni Sori. He was arrested on 9 September 2011 in his native Sameli village in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, for charges of aiding Maoist rebels, who are fighting an armed insurgency against state forces across Central India. Specifically, the Chhattisgarh police have charged the two with acting as couriers and transferring funds amounting to 1.5 million Indian Rupees (US$300,000) from a corporate mining firm, Essar, to the Maoists as "protection money" to ensure that its mining operations could be carried on unhindered. In early May 2013, a trial court in Dantewada town acquitted Soni Sori, Lingaram Kodopi and 15 other persons accused of conspiring and participating in the attack against Congress leader Avadesh Gautam at Nakulnar in Chhattisgarh as the prosecution failed to establish any grounds for the charges against them. He remains in prison at this time.
Lingaram Kodopi has been RELEASED.
Updates:
- Soni Sori's nephew Lingaram alleges police pressure, threatens to end his life on March 2, In a March 12 Facebook post, Soni Sori's Nephew, Lingaram Kodopi, threatened to commit suicide on March 23, 2016, due to police harassment. Police have accused Kodopi of the recent chemical attack on Soni Sori. (March 12, 2016, The Times of India).
- Police Threatening And Harassing Soni Sori's Family, Says Relative. Soni Sori's nephew, Lingaram Kodopi, has stated in a press conference that police are attempting to force Sori's family to state the attack against Soni Sori was orchestrated by Sori herself, in order to gain sympathy. (March 21, 2016, Press Trust of India).