Chhattisgarh: Slain Top Maoist Basavaraju’s Last Rites Performed In Bastar’s Narayanpur
There was no legal claimant for his body, police said
Raipur:The Chhattisgarh police on Monday said that the last rites of Maoist general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, slain along with 26 others in the May 21 encounter in Abujhmad, were performed in district headquarters of Narayanpur under south Bastar since ‘there was no legal claimant’ for his body.
Bodies of eight Maoists including that of Basavaraju were cremated in Narayanpur as per the legal procedure with due order from the executive magistrate, a statement issued by the Bastar police late on Monday evening said.
The statement comes in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh High Court issuing an order on the issue, saying, “The court is inclined to dispose of these two writ petitions, leaving it open for the petitioners to approach the concerned police authority of the Chhattisgarh state and seek custody of the bodies of the deceased namely Sajja Venkata Nageswara Rao @ Rajanna @Yesamma @ Naveen and Nambala Keshav Rao @ Basavaraj”.
The order, issued on May 24, was in response to the two petitions filed in the AP High Court seeking a direction from the court to hand-over the dead bodies of the two deceased Maoists.
The Bastar police said out of the bodies of 27 Maoists recovered from the Kudmel-Kalhaja-Jatloor (Abujhmad area in Narayanpur district) encounter, 20 had been handed over to the family members after verifying their claims.
The press statement said out of the family members of these 20 slain Naxal cadres, family members of Kosi alias Hungi, who have come to Narayanpur to collect the body on May 26, have requested the local authorities to facilitate the cremation in Narayanpur due to the decomposition of the body.
“Whereas there was no clear legal claimant for the remaining seven Naxal dead bodies including that of top ranked Naxal cadre CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju. All those eight Naxal dead bodies (including the dead body of Maoist cadre Kosi @Hungi, which was cremated by the family members) were cremated in Narayanpur as per the legal procedure with due order from the executive magistrate”, the press statement said.
The statement said Basavaraju who took over the reins of the Maoists on November 10, 2018 was facing more than 258 criminal cases, “which have direct or indirect involvement of Basavaraj”, and all these cases were being screened by the investigation team.
“Further lawful action and investigation procedures are being carried out by the Narayanpur police in the case”, the statement said.
