HC directs police to hand over bodies of slain naxals

Hyderabad, Dec 29 (UNI) The Andhra Pradesh High Court today directed the Station House Officer, G K Veedhi, Visakhapatnam and other police officers of the district to hand over the bodies of the two Maoist activists, who were allegedly killed in an encounter with the police on December 27 to their relatives.

The Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court passed the above order in a writ petition filed by Balakrishna, District Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Libterties Committee of Visakhapatnam. The petition alleged that the police had staged the killing of two Maoists on Wednesday and dubbed the same as encounter.

Mr Balakrishna, sought a direction from the Court to the police to book a murder case against the police officers, who participated in the encounter. The police informed the court that they had Videographed the post-mortem of the slain naxalites. The Bench directed the police to preserve the video copy.

The police have been directed to file their counter affidavit within two weeks.

UNI XR/JRK VD VC2255