The District Court has directed the police to preserve the bodies of the two Maoists killed in an alleged encounter in the Nilambur forests until December 5.
CPI (Maoist) central committee member Kuppu Devarajan and Ajita, alias Kaveri, were killed by the police a few kilometers inside the jungle in the Karulai forest range on Thursday last. The police claimed that they were killed in an encounter.
Principal District and Sessions Judge S.S. Vassan issued the order to preserve the bodies of the Maoists after hearing an application filed by Devarajan’s brother Shreedharan.
Seeks opinion
The judge issued the order after seeking the opinion of the police and the government. When the police agreed to preserve the bodies at Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, the government counsel said that it had no objection.
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) general secretary and lawyer P.A. Pouran represented Mr. Shreedharan in court. Mr. Pouran said that fresh applications would be moved on Wednesday seeking re-examination of the bodies in the presence of experts from outside Kerala.
Mr. Shreedharan and rights activists, said that they were not happy with the Crime Branch investigation into the incident. He said that Devarajan and Ajita were killed by the police in a fake encounter.
Mr. Pouran said that the killing had been a drastic and inhuman move on the part of the State.
Mr. Pouran also questioned the propriety of entrusting the inquiry to the same officer who had conducted the inquest of the bodies. It was Sub-Collector Jafar Malik who had conducted the inquest on Friday. The government has asked Mr. Malik to conduct a magisterial inquiry into the killing. Meanwhile, the police released the photographs some empty shells believed to have been fired from AK-47 guns used by the Maoists camping inside the forests. The police said the Maoists had fired at them and that the empty rounds were recovered from the forest after several hours of search.
