Preserve bodies of 6 ‘smugglers’ killed in AP encounter till tomorrow, says Madras HC

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed that bodies of six persons, gunned down in an encounter in the Seshachalam forests in Andhra Pradesh, be preserved until Friday when it will take up the matter.

The bodies would be preserved in a mortuary in Thiruvannamalai District Headquarters government hospital, about 170 km from here.

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The court's direction was in response to a petition filed by one Muniammal of Polur of Thiruvannamalai district, wife of one of those killed, which came up for hearing before Justice M Sathyanarayanan.

She had sought conducting a re-postmortem on the body of her husband, killed in the alleged encounter by Andhra Pradesh police in the Seshachalam Forests near Tirupathi on Tuesday.

Counsel for the petitioner K Balu submitted that apart from the bullet injuries, there were cut mark injuries also on the body of Sasikumar. He further contented that chemicals were also spread on the body.

Read: Man claims woodcutters were taken to forest, shot

Justice M Sathyanarayanan said he would pass orders tomorrow on the petition after taking it as the first item. He, however, said if any order of post-mortem has to be passed an FIR was must and without it, the same cannot be ordered.

The Judge said that if the Tamil Nadu government takes a decision on the FIR, the Court would not stand in the way.

Advocate General A L Somayaji submitted that government has no objection and also said that if the Court passes order on the post mortem, it will be done immediately.

The Judge said that the Court cannot pass any orders as there was no FIR and that the incident had occurred outside the Jurisdiction of this Court.

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Then the AG submitted that he would submit to the Court tomorrow on the further proceedings to be taken.

After hearing, the Judge said he would take up the matter tomorrow as first item and till then directed that the bodies be kept in Thiruvannamalai District Headquarters government hospital.

Simultaneously, expressing grief over the incident, AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa expressed doubts over the encounter and urged AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to initiate action based on a fact-finding probe.

"After the points raised by media and social activists besides publishing of photographs, there are fears whether the action by the Andhra Pradesh police is correct," she said.

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The former Chief Minister said that it was 'doubtful' whether the authorities had used 'require power' against the alleged smugglers even if it was assumed that they were involved in illegal smuggling activity.

"I request the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (Chandrababu Naidu) to hold a probe to establish facts and initiate action based on that," she said in a statement.

Further, she announced a relief of Rs two lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the encounter on behalf of her party, adding that state Ministers, MPs and MLAs of the respective districts will hand over the same to the families in person.