Murder case filed against STF personnel involved in the Andhra killings

The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that the state police had registered a case of murder in connection with the killing of 20 people, said to be Red Sanders smugglers, in police firing in Chittoor district on 7 April. [caption id=“attachment_2198428” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A murder case has been filed in the Andhra killings. PTI[/caption] The case was filed against “unknown” Special Task Force (STF) personnel who were involved in the killings, according to Indian Express. Additional Advocate General (AAG) D Srinivas informed a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, that an FIR had been registered based on a complaint filed by Muniyammal, a native of Tamil Nadu and wife of one of the deceased labourers Sashi Kumar. She had also appealed for a re-post mortem of the bodies of those killed, according to IBNLive. The AAG also informed the court that the government was in the process of constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. The FIR was registered under sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against some “unknown” STF police personnel. During the last hearing, the court was informed that Muniyammal had lodged a complaint with the Chandragiri Police in Chittoor district, with the specific allegation that “it was not an encounter death, but a well-planned and organised crime, committed by the STF police.” “In her complaint, Muniammal said her husband Sashi and others were daily wage labourers who were going to find work when Andhra Pradesh policemen took them away and shot them dead,” Indian Express said in its report. She had sought directions to AP police to register a case under section 302 in connection with the incident besides seeking transferring the investigation to CBI. The bench wanted AAG to ascertain whether any such complaint has been received by the Station House Officer (SHO) or not and if received what action has been taken. Taking suo motu cognisance of Muniyammal’s complaint, the Hyderabad High Court had earlier made her a petitioner in the case filed by Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), which, in a writ petition filed in the high court earlier had alleged that it was a case of “murder” and the victims were poor labourers from Tamil Nadu. (With inputs from PTI)