Victim's Wife Fails to Co-operate; Andhra team Ends Inquiry

By J Shanmugha Sundaram

Published: 27th April 2015 

TIRUVANNAMALAI: A team of police personnel from Andhra Pradesh conducted an inquiry with one of the Seshachalam encounter victim’s wife on Saturday, just a few days ahead of submitting the case diary to the High Court. However, the inquiry reportedly ended abruptly after the victim’s families refused to co-operate with the four-member team.

The team consisted of Deputy Superintendent of Police of Tirupathi (East) Ravi Shankar Reddy — the designated Investigating Officer of the case filed against Red Sander Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF). He was accompanied by three other police personnel, who reached Kannamangalam on Saturday to record the statements of the victims’ families.

Earlier on April 14, the AP police had registered an FIR against some unnamed STF personnel based on a complaint filed by S Muniyammal, wife of A Sashi Kumar of Vettagiripalayam, one of the victims of the encounter. The police invoked Sections 302 (punishment for murder), 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of Indian Penal Code against those involved in the encounter, according to counsel of the victims’ families Advocate K Balu.

Following this, the complainants had been summoned to Kannamangalam Police Station in the district to obtain information from them under the provision of Section 161 of CrPC. Inspector M Arivazhagan of Kannamangalam station and Inspector D Vinayagam of Arni Town Station were present during the inquiry.

During the 30-minute-long inquiry, the AP police questioned Muniyammal about her husband, his work-related details, when he left the house last time, where he had left to and who accompanied him. “The police team recorded the statement of Muniyammal. However, she refused to sign on the statement paper. Following this, the police wound up their investigation citing lack of cooperation from the complainant party,” said Madhavan, elder brother of Mahendran who was also killed in the alleged encounter. He further said they were not keen to talk to the AP police.

“The case has been registered on April 14. But the AP police did not take any action or commence inquiry until April 24. They reached Kannamangalam in the last minute before submitting the case diary before the HC.

“It is drama by the AP police to show that they carried inquiry before handing over the case diary to the court,” Advocate K Balu added.

The victims’ family have also reportedly informed the four-member police team that they would talk to the eight-member SIT led by Inspector General of Police (repatriate from Central deputation - National Investigation Agency) Ravi Shankar Ayyankar.

“Until now, the AP police did not submit a single document and the Action Taken Report before the HC. It clearly shows their intention to buy more time to wipe out the evidences and cover up the STF’s inhumane act that claimed the lives of 20 farm hands,” charged the advocate.