Soni Sori

Soni Sori Biography

Soni Sori is an Adivasi school teacher turned political leader from Chhattisgarh. Currently a member of Aam Aadmi Party, she unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general elections from Bastar. A tribal rights activist, she was an alleged Maoist conduit, who is now fully associated with politics. She was arrested in 2011 accused of being a Maoist and during her days in jail she alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police. In 2013 she was acquitted in six out of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence. A woman who was exploited both by the police and the Maoists, she looks forward into her second innings as a politician.

Soni Sori was born in 1975 in Bade Bedma, Chhattisgarh. Her father, Mundra Ram served as the sarpanch of their home village and was associated with Indian National Congress. An educated and outgoing tribal woman, Soni is married to Anil Futane, a Maharashtrian who fell in love with her and left his family to stay with her. The couple has three children. One of the prominent families of her tribal region, her father also served as an informer of police for which he was shot in the leg by Naxalite rebels in 2011. Same year she was arrested accused of Maoist conduit and her mother who fell ill after both these incidents died very soon. Sori’s nephew Maoist conduit Lingaram Kodapi was also arrested. Her husband was detained for one year. Soni Sori was arrested by Delhi Police on the request of the Chhattisgarh Police.

On 9 July 2013, Chhattisgarh High Court rejected her bail application. Following her statements on her concern on safety at court, she was transferred to the custody of Chhattisgarh state police in Dantewada. She alleges that she was stripped naked and tortured with electric shocks under the order of then-district police superintendent Ankit Garg, who was sitting on a chair watching her. She was also sexually assaulted, forcibly inserted stones into her body and subsequently hospitalized at Kolkata Medical College Hospital. Later she was shifted to Jagdalpur Jail. For Chhattisgarh police, she is a Maoist supporter, booked for several offences, including sedition. But later in 2013 she was acquitted in six out of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence.

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Updated: March 06, 2016