MADURAI: The Joint Action Against Custodial Torture -Tamil Nadu & Puducherry (JAACTTN) has urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take steps to get the interim stay of Andhra Pradesh High Court vacated so that the commission’s directions regarding the Chittoor encounter killings can be implemented.
In a release issued on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of the incident when 20 loggers from Tamil Nadu were shot dead in “self defence” by Andhra Pradesh Red Sanders Anti Smuggling Special Task Force (STF) in an encounter inside the Seshachalam forest in Chittoor district on April 7, 2015, JAACTTN legal advisor Henri Tiphange said due to the interim stay, proceedings on the writ petition has been pending.
In the aftermath of the incident, the NHRC gave a slew of directions including magisterial inquiry, safe custody of weapons used by the STF and the deceased, not tamper with evidence such as police register, log books till trial is completed.
It also directed the AP government to pay Rs 5 lakh interim relief to kin of each victims and suggested a CBI probe into the incident. The AP government filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court challenging the commission’s directions and got a stay order.