HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Wednesday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to submit postmortem and inquest reports pertaining to the Seshachalam encounter, in which 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were killed, within 24 hours. The directive came even as the AP government informed the court that the police had registered an FIR against the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force involved in the encounter and that a special investigation team had also been formed to probe the incident.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, issued the orders on a plea by Muniammal, widow of one of the victims, seeking re-postmortem of her husband’s body. The bench had earlier impleaded Muniammal in a PIL filed by Chilka Chandra Sekhar of the Civil Liberties Committee seeking a directive to book a murder case against the task force personnel. The bench made it clear it cannot look into the pleas for re-postmortem without first examining the postmortem reports — doctors at the Ruia hospital had conducted postmortem on the 20 bodies soon after the encounter. The bench also sought a copy of the FIR registered at the Chandragiri police station based on Muniammal’s complaint, details of the police personnel involved in the encounter and names of the doctors who conducted the postmortems. The victims’ bodies are currently preserved at a government hospital in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.
When the AP government’s additional advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas informed the court of the constitution of an SIT, the bench directed him to submit names of the officers on the same.
The counsel representing Muniammal told the bench they had approached the Madras High Court on the issue. When the bench said it would not be proper for it to hear the plea in such a case, they said the Madras High Court had advised them to approach the Hyderabad High Court as the encounter took place in the latter’s jurisdiction.
The petitioner’s counsel further said they would withdraw the case pending before the Madras High Court.
Viqar kin move hc,seek cbi probe
A writ petition was filed in the High Court on Wednesday seeking a CBI probe into the alleged police encounter at Alair in Nalgonda district in which five suspected terror operatives were killed. The plea, filed by the kin of the victims, also sought re-postmortem and a case against the cops involved.