Activists have questioned the police account of the encounter in which 32 Maoists have been killed.
Highlights
- 32 Maoists were killed in an encounter last week, the police have said
- Activists say Ramakrishna caught, say Maoists were tortured and killed
- Ramakrishnas wife has filed a habeus corpus petition in court
Did the police capture Maoist leader Ramakrishna during an operation last week in Malkangiri in which 32 Maoists were killed? The police will have to give an official reply to the question to the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday following a petition filed by the Maoist leader's wife Sirisha.
Activists say they suspect that Ramakrishna, a top Maoist leader popular as RK, was caught during the alleged encounter in Malkangiri last week.
The police have told the court that RK was not arrested, that he is not in their custody. The judge reportedly commented that hopefully the court won't be informed about any encounter tomorrow in which those missing are reported killed.
Among the dead was RK's son Munna. The last rites for those identified have been performed but 19 of the 32 bodies have not been claimed yet.
Activists point out that many bodies have not been photographed and put in public domain. They claim the bodies have been kept wrapped in polythene as they allegedly bear mutilations that could raise questions about the encounter.
Activists also point out that the postmortem reports have not been made public. "They have not conducted the autopsy according to Supreme Court guidelines,'' said Padmaja Shaw of the Telangana Democratic Forum.
Eyewitneses claim the bodies were mutilated. "A woman's head is missing, another's body parts have been cut off,'' said civil liberties lawyer Raghunath.
Devendra, who went with a friend to the encounter site to collect the body of her mother, found to her shock that her husband Prabhakar had also been killed in the encounter.
"My husband's body was not in one piece and just 48 hours after the alleged encounter, bodies cannot be in such a bad state,'' Devendra said. "I did not have the guts to look at all the bodies. But it was obvious that they were captured and tortured and killed and it was not an encounter.''
Senior professor G Hargopal, a well-known civil rights activist, says even though RK is the leader of a so-called banned organisation, the onus is on the government to provide the answers about him, given the history of how security forces have dealt with Maoists. "It is up to the government to say where Ramakrishna is and present him in court in case he is in their custody.''
PL Vishweswar, activist and AAP leader, said the police have taken law into their hands. "The law and constitution in this country does not say that if it is a banned organisation, you can do away with the people in it. ''
The demand is for Operation Green Hunt as also combing operations in Malkangiri to be stopped at the earliest.