RAIPUR, India, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An Indian state ordered an investigation on Monday into claims 79 people who "surrendered" in front of its chief minister were not armed Maoist rebels as police had claimed but farmers and ruling party supporters. Police in the central state of Chhattisgarh, the worst affected of 13 hit by a Maoist rebellion, said last week the surrender ceremony on Jan. 3 in the capital, Raipur, would be a major boost to its drive to end the insurgency. Five weapons were also handed over. But on Saturday, a senior lawmaker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahesh Baghel, met the chief minister and home minister with documents he said proved the 79 were farmers and BJP supporters. "Baghel also told me that farmers and political cadres were forced by police to surrender as Maoists," Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told Reuters. "I have asked senior police officers to come out with the facts soon or get ready for action if civilians have been branded as Maoists," he added. Baghel said most of the alleged rebels were from the chief minister's electoral constituency. "We cannot say anything on the issue but we are definitely compiling all details of the surrendered persons," R.K. Vij, a senior police official, told Reuters. Hundreds of people have been killed and 50,000 left homeless in Chhattisgarh by Maoist violence. On Monday, paramilitary troops shot dead four rebels after raiding their forest hideout. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of millions of India's poor labourers and landless peasants in an insurgency that has killed thousands of people in India.
