VIJAYAWADA:The police explanation for what is being described as the ‘mother of all encounters’ in the history of Andhra Pradesh — right from 1956 — raises more questions than answers.
While 11 bullet-ridden bodies were found at Eethamagulagunta, nine were found at Cheekamagulagunta in the Seshachalam forest area. State DGP JV Ramudu said the police had opened fire in self-defence. However, the ‘scene of offence’ presents a picture that does not, on the face of it, support this claim, according to those who visited the spot. CPI leader T Harinath Reddy said it appeared as though they were all shot dead somewhere else and the bodies dumped at two places. “There were no blood marks...blood that oozes from the wounds. The weapons allegedly used by the smugglers are nothing but rusted axes, obviously unused for a long time. Worse still, some had no handles. The red sanders logs lying in between the bodies appear to have been brought from depots since they still have white paint. The bodies are all in plain areas in the forest. There are no bushes or trees around and the victims did not appear to have run for their lives,” he observed.
The police said they had sighted the smugglers in the early hours. “It may not be possible for the workers to attack the police nor for the police to shoot at them precisely into the head unless they happened to have been practising shooting at night. This itself is a big hole in the police theory,” Harinath Reddy pointed out.
Former MP Chinta Mohan termed the encounter murder in cold blood. “It appears they were made to stand with hands tied together and shot at,” he alleged. PCC president N Raghuveera Reddy said he would write to the National Human Rights Commission.
16 metres: 11 bodies were found near Chachinavadi banda in a 16-metre stretch
Unanswered Qs
1) How could workers attack with rusted axe blades, without a handle?
2) Why was there paint on logs scattered in between the bodies?
3) Why are the bodies piled up at two places if they were running away?
4) How could the police shoot exactly into their heads in twilight?
5) If there were hundreds of smugglers, why are only 11 cops injured?
6) Most of the victims were shot in the head. Why?