Try Naidu, AP Police For Murder, Says CLC

Terming the police encounter at Malkangiri in the October 24 Andhra-Odisha Border encounter, in which over 31 Maoists were gunned down, as "fake", the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC) of Telangana on Thursday demanded that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court try the AP Police and AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for murder and genocide.

Addressing a press conference, CLC leaders G Laxman (President), V Raghunath (Vice-President), N Narayana Rao (General Secretary) and P M Raju (City President) expressed their concerns over the elusiveness of top Maoist leaders including G Ramakrishna even after a fortnight of the encounter. Fearing a threat to the lives of the Maoist leaders, the CLC leaders stressed that the police had to produce them before the judiciary without fail.

The CLC painted a graphic picture of the conditions of the slain Maoists based on the photographs from the scene of encounter and also from the explanation of the AP DGP. They alleged that the Maoists were killed after subjecting them to inhuman and barbaric torture.

They claimed that AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu launched the operation to conquer Bauxite mines in the forest reserve in Visakhapatnam, and demanded a probe into this, too; and demanded that the lease given to mining companies by the Naidu-government should be cancelled forthwith besides withdrawing the Greyhound troops deployed in the agency areas.

Recalling Operation Green Hunt - launched in 2009 in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra - in which thousands of Adivasis were allegedly massacred besides rendering lakhs of them homeless, the CLP leaders claimed that the AOB encounter bore striking resemblance to that Op.

Other demands put forth by the CLC include repealing Operation Green Hunt, and try the AP Police and the CM for murder and genocide in the AOB encounter.