SC orders Chhattisgarh to preserve body of top Maoist leader after plea claims fake encounter

New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Chhattisgarh government to preserve the body of top Maoist commander Katha Ramchandra Reddy, who was killed in an alleged fake police encounter in Narayanpur district.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih said the body should not be buried or cremated till the high court decides the plea alleging a fake encounter and seeking an investigation into the matter.

"Till such time the high court decides the petition, the body shall not be cremated/buried," the bench directed as it asked the high court to take up the plea upon reopening after Dussera holidays.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Raja Chandra, submitted his father was allegedly tortured and killed in a fake encounter, and the police were trying to dispose of the body.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state police, said two persons were killed in an encounter and the father of the petitioner carried a Rs 7 crore bounty placed by seven states.

He informed the bench that the body of one Maoist killed in the same encounter was given to his family and cremated while the body of the petitioner's father was in hospital.

Mehta said the postmortem was done under video recording and no malafide can be attributed to the police.

The plea sought investigation by an independent agency, preferably by the CBI, not comprising officers from Chhattisgarh besides a fresh postmortem.

The plea, filed through advocate Satya Mitra, called the encounter fake.

The petitioner Raja Chandra, who has been a researcher at NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad and sought directions to the Chhattisgarh government to preserve the body of his father in a government morgue, to conduct postmortem, and to direct the CBI to investigate the death/murder of his father through officers from outside the state of Chhattisgarh.

Both Katha Ramchandra Reddy and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy were killed in the encounter on September 22.

According to the police, on September 22, the top top Maoist leaders carrying a bounty of Rs 40 lakh each in Chhattisgarh were killed in an encounter with security personnel in the state's Narayanpur district.

Both Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67), were Central Committee members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists), they said.

The police said the gun battle broke out in the morning of September 22, in the forest of Abhujmaad, adjoining Maharashtra, when security forces were out on a search operation based on inputs about the movement of senior cadres in the region.

Intermittent exchange of fire continued for several hours before the bodies of two male cadres were recovered from the spot, the police had said and they have pointed out that from the encounter site, forces recovered one AK-47 rifle, one INSAS rifle, one BGL (barrel grenade launcher), a huge cache of explosives, Maoist literature, and other daily-use materials.

Ramachandra Reddy and Satyanarayana Reddy were natives of Karimnagar in Telangana and were active in 'Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee' of CPI (Maoist) that handles activities of the outlawed organisation in Bastar region of the state for over three decades.

Both were allegedly masterminds of several violent incidents in Bastar, which claimed the lives of security personnel and civilians, the police has said earlier.

With the latest action, 249 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year.

Of them, 220 were eliminated in the Bastar division comprising seven districts, while 27 others were gunned down in Gariaband district, which falls in Raipur division.

Two other Naxalites were killed in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district in Durg division.

The most notable of the killings has been that of Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70), general secretary and top most operative of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), as well as five Central Committee members. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK