Kozhikode: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state to preserve the body of Maoist activist P. Ajitha, who died in the alleged encounter at Nilambur forest, till December 13. The court was considering a petition filed by Bhagavat Singh, Kodikulam, Madurai, who claimed to be a classmate of the deceased Ajitha. He sought a directive to hand over her body to him. The police manual states that it is the duty of the state police to hand over a dead body to friends if relatives do not exist or do not claim it.
The petitioner pointed out that the assurance given by the police to preserve the body would end on Friday. If the High Court did not intervene, the police could cremate the body. It would be a clear violation of the right to a decent burial of the deceased as well as the statutory provisions of the Kerala police manual, the petitioner said. The court sought the view of the state government.
The court had earlier dismissed a petition filed by D. Sreedharan, brother of deceased Kuppuswami alias Kuppu Devaraj, seeking to conduct a re-postmortem of the bodies of Kuppuswami and Kaveri alias Ajitha preserved at the Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode. Human Rights activists claim that the Maoists were captured alive and later they were killed.
