The contents of the First Information Report in the case relating to the killing of 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu in the Seshachalam forest near Tirupati assume significance after the Hyderabad High Court raised a query whether any case of ‘unnatural death’ had been registered in connection with the deaths.
The FIR accuses the woodcutters of rioting with deadly weapons, attempting to murder and possessing firearms and invokes provisions of the IPC, Indian Arms Act, Andhra Pradesh Forest Act and Biological Diversity Act. It also contains a claim that the police exercised their right of private defence after sensing a threat to their lives.
“The red sander smugglers, who had already trespassed into the prohibitory zone of the forest area formed themselves into an unlawful assembly, on the instructions of some persons in the background showed three firearms with intention to do away with their (special party) lives and threatened at the point of deadly weapons…,” says the FIR.
It says the woodcutters hurled big stones, arrows and axes.
To deter the “sandalwood smugglers”, the police initially fired three rounds in the air to scare them. Due to the pelting of sickles, axes and stones, the combing staff sustained injuries. On the orders of the officer in-charge, the special party opened fire on the opponent group “in the right of private defence and to safeguard their lives…”
Eleven “red sanders culprits” died on the spot. Thirteen red sanders logs were found lying on the spot and the remaining persons escaped. Though the firing took place just 8 km from the Chandragiri police station, it took more than six hours to register a case.
