Kochi: The death of four Maoist activists in an alleged encounter with the thunderbolt commandos at Manchikkandy near Attappadi is becoming murkier with the police unable to identify three of the four victims even three days after the incident.
So far the identity of only Manivasgam has been conclusively proved till Friday as confusion prevailed over the identity of body of the person named by police as that of Karthi, a native of Tamil Nadu. Brother of Karthi, who was shown the body expressed doubts whether it was of his brother, while relatives of Suresh (also known as Aravind) who reached Thrissur from Karnataka on Friday identified the body of Karthi as that of Suresh. The onus is on the police to identify the body of the person they have earlier identified as that of Suresh, activists said. The identity of the woman named by the police as Rema also remained mystery as nobody so far came forward to identify her.
The confusion has been prevailing even as a fact finding team led by CPI assistant secretary K Prakash Babu on Friday told reporters that the incident was a fake encounter.
“The visit to the site of the alleged gun battle has strengthened the idea that it was a fake encounter. It is a case of state terror”, he said. The team also interacted withresidents Manchikkandy tribal settlement and CPI workers.
CMP general secretary CP John who visited Thrissur Medical College on Friday and interacted with relatives of encounter victims accused the police of handling the matter with utter callousness. The authorities have not shown the minimum of dignity deserved by human beings in such situations, he said. Stating that murder cases should be registered against the police officials involved in the incident, Mr. John said if the CPI leaders have any sincerity in their words they should withdraw party nominees from ministerial posts taking moral responsibility of the incident.
Shanto Lal, general convener of Porattam, an activist group said CPI (Maoist) should be allowed to make a statement on whether any of their cadres are amongst the killed persons by suspending operations of the thunderbolt.
