A Division Bench of Hyderabad High Court comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice S. V. Bhatt on Monday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Seshachalam red sanders deaths’ case to go to Tamil Nadu for recording the statements of witnesses at their homes. The bench ordered notices in another petition seeking reconstitution of SIT.
The bench was dealing with cases filed regarding the “encounter” deaths of 22 red sanders wood-cutters from Tamil Nadu in Seshachalam forests, near Tirupati.
Vrinda Grover, appearing for widows of the killed wood-cutters, complained that the SIT team which recorded the statements from three witnesses in AP area behaved in a threatening manner. She said that the whole process of investigation raised several doubts, and thus, the statements had to be recorded in Tamil Nadu. The three witnesses claimed that they were in a bus and saw the AP police whisk away some of their colleagues from the same bus who were found dead later in the forest. The three witnesses are Sekhar, Elangovan and Balachandran.
Vasudha Nagaraj, who appeared in the second case filed by V.S. Krishna of Human Rights Forum (HRF), told the court that the present head of SIT was Superintendent of Police in several districts and during his tenure, several fake encounters had taken place. She said that there was a need to constitute a fresh SIT by identifying and selecting each member, keeping in mind their integrity and past record and headed by an IPS officer from the Union cadre outside the State of Andhra Pradesh; the other alternative was to hand over the investigation to the CBI.
Srinivasan Dammalapati, Additional Advocate General of AP, complained that the three witnesses are in custody and in control of a third party. He said a letter was given by an advocate from Tamil Nadu who said that he had to take back the witnesses same day as per the advice of an NGO in Chennai. He alleged that the third parties were intervening in the process when statements were recorded. He said the police from Tamil Nadu, translators and revenue officers were present when the witnesses were questioned and the whole process was video-recorded. The allegations made by the counsel in the court were not true. The government was willing to go to Tamil Nadu and record the statements made by the witnesses.
The bench ordered notices in the matter seeking reconstitution of SIT and passed interim orders in the case filed by the spouses of deceased wood-cutters. The bench said that the SIT team may go to the native village of the witnesses and record their statements. The advocate may be present, but he will not hear the conversation between the police and the witnesses. The whole process will be video-recorded. The cases will be listed after three weeks.
