Family of Maoist Leader Keshava Rao Files Contempt Petition After Chhattisgarh Police Defy HC Order

Visakhapatnam: The family members of deceased Maoist leader Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraju, filed a contempt petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court after Chhattisgarh police defied the HC order of the neighbouring state and cremated the body without handing it over to relatives. The arguments of the case will be heard on Thursday.

Nambala Keshava Rao, the 70-year-old Maoist general secretary, was among the 27 cadres killed in a major encounter with security forces on May 21. Following the encounter, Keshava Rao’s family members, including his brother Nambala Dhilleswara Rao and nephew Nabla Janardhan Rao, travelled from their native village of Jiyyannapet in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, seeking custody of the body for proper last rites.

Dhilleswara Rao said, “We have waited there for more than four days, after submitting our Aadhaar cards to the Narayanpur police to confirm our identity. Yet, they continue to send us back and forth between the district hospital and the police authorities without any clear assurance of handing over the body.”

The family alleged that the police demanded a recent family photograph with Keshava Rao, something they described as unrealistic given that he had joined the Maoist movement nearly five decades ago.

“A respectable cremation is the right of the dead, and it has been completely ignored by the police of both AP and Chhattisgarh,” said Dhilleswara Rao, announcing plans to file a contempt of court petition against the police and Chhattisgarh government.

The Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court on May 23 on behalf of Keshava Rao’s stepmother, Bharathamma, and relatives of other slain Maoists. The court ordered police to hand over the bodies to families for conducting last rites in their hometowns.

Despite the court directive, the Chhattisgarh police proceeded to cremate the bodies on May 26, classifying them as “unclaimed” due to alleged insufficient legal documentation establishing family relationships.