Terming the
July encounter in which CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was gunned down in July as 'lawless', the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Union and the AP governments to respond over the killing 'satisfactorily' within 6 weeks.
Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey were killed in the allegedly fake encounter, during the intervening night of 1 and 2 July 2010, by the police, in Adilabad.
Accepting a plea filed by rights activist Swami Agnivesh and Azad's wife Babita, a bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R M Lodha directed the government to respond 'satisfactorily'. It added that it cannot allow such lawless killings to go on.
"In our republic we cannot allow the state to behave in such a lawless manner and allow our children to be killed. We hope the state has some satisfactory answer to this petition," the Supreme Court bench said.
Calls for a judicial probe into the killing began soon after the news of the alleged encounter broke, with civil rights activists accusing the government of murdering the Maoist leader and the journalist in cold blood, and terming the encounter as fake.
The Supreme Court Bench said, "We hope that the government provides a good and convincing answer. The government will have to answer many questions."
The petitioners had pointed out to the postmortem reports of the 2 men, and also to a fact-finding mission carried out by civil rights groups, which indicated that the encounter was fake.
The fact-finding mission was carried out by Coordination Of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), a national coalition of human rights organisations. The civil rights groups claimed to have found out from the postmortem reports that both the slain men were shot dead from a very close range.
What The The Police Say
The police had claimed that they had seen some persons acting suspiciously and shouted orders to get them to stop. The persons then scurried across into the forest with the police personnel on duty going after them.
The Maoists then fired at the police, who were forced to retaliate. The exchange of gunfire continued till around 2:30am on July 2. After the firing stopped, the security forces had ventured into the conflict area and discovered 2 bodies, according to the police version.
According to sources, the post-mortem examination report said the fatal bullet entered Azad's body from the upper chest, and exited from the lower vertebral column.
What The Rights Groups Say
However, the FIR said the police fired upwards, after spotting the Maoists on a hill. In that case, the bullet should have pierced Azad's body from lower vertebrae, according to the Civil Rights organisations.
The autopsy reports also mentioned that the burn marks at the bullet entry point in the body were signs of the shots being fired at close range.
Another discrepancy in the police version was that the police had 'identified' the slain Maoist and journalist Hemachandra Pandey, but while filing the FIR, the 2 were mentioned as 'unidentified'.
Rights Groups have sought an inquiry to be conducted by a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court, who should be selected by the Chief Justice of the country.
Claiming that the 'encounter' was fake, these sympathisers pointed out that Azad's mother had already filed a petition on March 20, 2010, before the State Human Rights Commission claiming that the top Maoist leader was missing since March 12.
Courtesy: INN