Tsundur Dalit massacre case: Govt to file plea in SC against accused

, Apr 27: A Special Leave Petition (SLP) will be filed in the

against the

High Court's judgement acquitting all the accused in Tsundur killings, state DGP B Prasada Rao said here today.

Addressing a 'Meet-the-Press' programme organised by the Telangana Union of Working Journalists (TUWJ), the DGP said the government would appeal in the apex court against the high court order in the case and a SLP will be filed soon.

He, however, ruled out failure on part of police over not getting sufficient evidence in the case. A division bench of the high court on April 22 had set aside an order of a special court sentencing 21 persons to life imprisonment and awarded jail sentence of one-year to 35 others for the massacre of Dalits at Tsundur in Guntur district in 1991.

The high court had set aside the sentences for lack of evidence in the sensational case, wherein eight Dalits were killed allegedly by persons from non-Dalit farming communities in August 1991. Meanwhile, responding to a query, Prasada Rao said the AP CID had on April 25 received an Interpol red corner notice against Congress Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao in the titanium bribery matter.

"...It was not accompanied by a warrant. And hence, the CID sent them (the CBI) a request, asking them to send the warrant. We are in correspondence with the CBI in this regard," the top cop said, adding that "He (Rao) is an MP and we are not keeping a vigil on him."

On April 23, the US had approached India for Ramachandra Rao's arrest. The notice was sent by Interpol to CBI after a US federal jury indicted Rao and five others on charges of receiving bribes of USD 18.5 million from an American firm to allow it to mine titanium in Andhra Pradesh.

CBI had then sent the letter to Andhra Pradesh police asking them to take action against Rao. Ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state, unaccounted cash of Rs 120 crore was seized by the police and nearly 3,000 cases were booked for poll code violations so far, the DGP added.

PTI