Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that the state police has registered a case of murder in connection with the killing of 20 people in police firing in Chittoor district on April 7.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) D Srinivas informed a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, that an FIR has been registered based on a complaint filed by Muniyammal, a native of Tamil Nadu and wife of one of the deceased labourers Sashi Kumar.
The AAG also informed the court that the government is in the process of constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
The FIR was registered under sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against some "unknown" STF police personnel.
During the last hearing, the court was informed that Muniyammal had lodged a complaint with Chandragiri Police in Chittoor district with the specific allegation that "it was not an encounter death, but a well-planned and organised crime, committed by the STF police."
She had sought directions to AP police to register a case under section 302 in connection with the incident besides seeking transferring the investigation to CBI.
The bench wanted AAG to ascertain whether any such complaint has been received by the Station House Officer (SHO) or not and if received what action has been taken.
Taking suo motu cognizance of Muniyammal's complaint, the Hyderabad High Court had earlier made her a petitioner in the case filed by Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), which, in a writ petition filed in the high court earlier had alleged that it was a case of "murder" and the victims were poor labourers from Tamil Nadu.
Muniyammal on Wednesday appeared before the high court and filed an application through her counsel seeking directions to the AP government to conduct once again post mortem on the bodies of her husband and five others by an expert medical team and to video-shoot the process.
The six bodies are preserved in a government hospital in Thiruvannamali district of Tamil Nadu.
Referring to this, the high court directed the AAG to file before it by Thursday the post-mortem report and inquest report conducted earlier on the bodies.
The matter was subsequently posted for Thursday.
Twenty people were gunned down in Seshachalam hill ranges of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh on April 7 in an operation by the police.
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