Soni Sori and 13 others let-off in Naxal attack case

Raipur:Tribal schoolteacher Soni Sori and 13 others were today acquitted by a court in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district in a case related to Naxal attack on a local Congress leader three years ago. Dantewada Assistant Public Prosecutor Rakesh Kumar Singh told PTI over phone that District Judge Anita Dehariya let off Sori and others, who were arrested for the July, 2010 attack on the house of Congress leader Avdesh Gautam. They were acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence against them, he said.[caption id="attachment_744707" align="alignleft" width="380"] A protest rally in Kolkata demanding release of Soni Sori. Courtesy: Facebook. [/caption] Singh said 66 people were named as accused in the Maoist assault on Gautam's house at Kuakonda in Dantewada. Of them, 14, including the teacher, were later arrested. A relative of Gautam was killed while his bodyguard, son and wife were injured. The Congress leader, who was present in the house at time of the incident, had escaped unhurt. Sori is currently lodged in Jagdalpur's Central Jail in connection with another case related to her alleged links with Naxals. She is accused of acting as a courier between a private steel company and Maoists. Sori was named by the state police in nearly half a dozen cases related to Naxal activities and she had been acquitted in some of them. PTI