To verify the claims of task force officials, in connection with the 'Seshachalam encounter' incident, a delegation of human rights activists from various organisations across the country, visited the spot, on Saturday.
Fact-finding team
A fact-finding team, led by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO), maintained that there were several inconsistencies in the version put forward by the officials.
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They further termed the killing of 20 red sanders coolies as a ‘fake encounter’ and sought a CBI inquiry into the issue.
“There were no visible signs of conflict at the location. The distance between bodies of coolies is less than 10 feet and blood marks were not found elsewhere. It is surprising that there were no injuries, when the task force men have opened fire on a group of 150 coolies,” they said.
The activists also said at the second encounter location - Sachinodibanda, there were no stones for the coolies to hurl at the task force and it was humanly impossible to throw them at longer distances.
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Judicial probe sought
They further demanded to book the officials, involved in the encounter, under Section 302 of IPC, conduct a re-postmortem of the bodies and order a judicial inquiry with an independent investigation agency.
Flaying the version of government and police officials, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) general secretary Chiluka Chandrasekhar said if killing coolies in name of protecting forest wealth was justified, then the government should target the people looting the wealth in the name of mining activities.
Activists from Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) (Tamil Nadu), Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Human Rights Forum (HRF), Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL), Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Peoples Rights Protection Committee (PRPC) and several others took part.