Doctors attached to the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital on Saturday conducted post-mortem examination on the bodies of two Maoists killed in encounter with the police inside the Nilambur forests.
Kuppu Devarajan, CPI (Maoist) central committee member, and Ajita, aka Kaveri, both hailing from Tamil Nadu, were killed in an encounter inside the jungle in Nilambur on Thursday.
Devarajan’s relatives refused to receive his body at the hospital, alleging fake encounter. They demanded that the inquest be prepared in the presence of a magistrate.
Devarajan’s brother Babu Devarajan, RMP leader K.K. Rema, and former Naxalite leader Grow Vasu said it was a fake encounter as no policeman was injured in the incident.
Babu said the killings were a mystery and said that police deliberately projected the the spot where his brother was killed as a Maoist hideout.
IG (Kannur Range) Dinendra Kashyap said the bodies would be kept in the hospital morgue for 72 hours. Activists of several pro-radical and human rights organisations staged a protest in front of the medical college seeking a post-mortem examination in the presence of a magistrate. A police team intervened when the slogan-shouting protesters tried to barge into the mortuary. This led to a scuffle between the agitators and the police personnel for two hours.
29 in custody
Twenty-nine persons were taken into custody. Among them are Grow Vasu, Stalin, Jaison K. Cooper, Reni Ilin, P.G. Hari, Manuel, Shijin Kumar, C.P. Rashid, Arun G.M., Ahsraf, Suja Bharati, Shiji, Prasant A.B, V.C. Jeni, Swanesh Babu, Joy, and Akbar. All were taken to the Nadakkavu police station and released later.
Mr. Vasu, who felt uneasiness, was shifted to Kozhikode Government Beach Hospital. Porattam activist M.N. Ravunny who was taken into custody from the medical college premises was handed over to Mananthavady police in connection with a case registered against him for pasting posters exhorting people to boycott the Assembly elections.
