houses of the absconding accused.

"A tall uniformed man stared at me. Instead of answering, he asked me my identity. I teach in Delhi, I told him. 'Name?' I told him. 'Father's name?' I told him. But even before I could take out my identity card, he turned hostile. By then, I was surrounded by the rest of the cops. They roughed me up and thrashed my colleague, Varun, who suffered a fracture," said Ramagundam.

"They had guns. A constable in green fatigues called me a Naxalite and moved menacingly to break the cordon around me," he said.

After meeting Khagaria SP Anusya Rannsingh Sodhi, Ramagundam lodged a complaint asking whether people had the right to ask police for written orders before dismantling houses of the "poorest of the poor".

The KhagariaSP said she would conduct an inquiry and take appropriate action. She added that she would not take action against anyone merely on the basis of Ramagundam's statement. Ramagundam is author of two books, 'Defeated Innocence' on the Adivasi struggle for land rights in Madhya Pradesh in 2001 and 'Gandhi's Khadi: A History of Contention and Conciliation'.

