The bodies of five unidentified persons, suspected to be labourers of Tamil Nadu, were found floating in a tank near Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh early on Sunday.
On information from local people, police and fire service personnel fished out the bodies from the Vontimitta tank, along the Kadapa-Chennai National Highway in Kadapa.
The victims wearing T-shirts and lungies were in their early thirties and carried bags containing water bottles, toiletries, clothes etc., police sources said.
Local people suspected that the victims were red sander woodcutters of Tamil Nadu.
Nearly 30 woodcutters of Tamil Nadu came in a lorry to Vontimitta two days ago and some of them could have jumped into the water in a bid to escape from being caught during vehicle checking, they said.
Since the area is close to the Vontimitta forest range, the police check vehicles regularly to prevent felling or smuggling of red sanders. However, police ruled out the theory that the workers could have jumped into water to escape being caught. “They appear to have tried to cross the tank and drowned,” a police officer said.
The Vontimitta forest, a red sanders belt, begins after the tank and it is suspected that the victims tried to swim across the tank at midnight. The bodies bore no visible injuries. Bags found alongside the bodies did not have any implements used to cut trees.
The victims could have drowned at least 48 hours before since the bodies were bloated and highly decomposed, Kadapa Superintendent of Police Babujee Attada said.
No evidence
No evidence was found in the bags to establish their identity. Moles and other identification marks on the bodies were recorded, Rajampet DSP B. Lakshminarayana said. The bodies were sent to the RIMS hospital in Kadapa for post-mortem, the DSP added.
A case under Section 174 Cr.P.C. (Unnatural death) was registered by the Vontimitta police, Additional SP (Operations) Adnan Nayeem Asmi said in a statement issued in Kadapa. The police and fire service personnel deployed swimmers to see if there were more bodies in the tank, Mr. Asmi said.
The cases of missing persons in Kadapa and neighbouring districts and adjoining States were being verified to establish the identity of the bodies.
In Tamil Nadu, top officials said they had no formal communication of the incident involving people of the State.
Human rights activists have demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the deaths.
The victims seemed to be labourers from Tamil Nadu and the incident took place in an area that was very close to the earlier site where 20 woodcutters of Tamil Nadu were gunned down by the Andhra Pradesh police. “This gives rise to the suspicion that it is yet another incident of killing and an attempt to hide evidence by throwing the bodies into the tank...this should be probed by a central agency. I hope that the police and administration respond with alacrity at least in this incident,” said V. Suresh, People’s Union for Civil Liberties national general secretary. This should be probed by the CBI, he said.
Fact-finding team
Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee general secretary Kranthi Chaithanya said a fact-finding team visited the scene to study the circumstances that led to the incident. He demanded that the post-mortem be conducted by a team of experts.
In April 2015, 20 woodcutters were shot dead by the Andhra Pradesh Special Task Force near Tirupati. The woodcutters were shot after they hurled stones, arrows, sickles and axes at the combing special party.
