Date:04/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/07/04/stories/2005070404320600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Call to end fake encounters

Staff Reporter

Rajasekhara Reddy denies charges over naxal leader's killing

PALACOLE (WEST GODAVARI DIST): The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Sunday said the Government would not allow the police to indulge in fake encounters with anybody, including naxalites.

Dr. Reddy made a categorical statement to this effect at a media conference after his Rajiv Nagara Baata Programme here in the wake of mounting pressure from civil rights organisations and the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) for a judicial probe into the killing of Riaz, a top leader of the Janashakti, allegedly in a fake encounter. At the same time, the Chief Minister made it clear that the encounter in which Riaz was killed was not a fake one.

TRS ultimatum

On the ultimatum given by the TRS that it would pull out of the Government at the Centre and in the State, if the Government failed to change its stance on fake encounters, Dr. Reddy described such postures as an offshoot of the terror unleashed by naxalites. "They (TRS) speak something in my chambers and say something else outside on the issue because of fear,'' he observed. Describing his Government as a moral and responsive one, he said it had never indulged in unethical and immoral acts such as fake encounters.

In this connection he recalled that the police had arrested a top leader of the CPI (Maoist), Gopanna, and produced him in court recently without causing any harm to him. Dr. Reddy accused a section of the media of lacking objectivity in the coverage of the naxal-police standoff.

He charged that a section of the media was trying to create a wedge between the Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, and himself and was thoroughly biased against the Government in coverage of the extremist problem just to "boost their sales."

Bandh call

Special Correspondent in Hyderabad adds:

Meanwhile, the Janashakti gave a call for a State bandh on July 8 in protest against the encounter killing of Riaz, and three other party activists.

The Janashakti State secretary, Amar, in a statement here demanded the release of three other activists who, he alleged, continued to be in police custody. All the three had been picked up to extract information about the movement of Riya and the other slain naxalites in the city. Amar said the information provided by these three initially led to the arrest of Karimnagar district secretary, Vijay, and Gowtham, who was physically challenged, on Thursday night. Vijay had rented accommodation near Kachiguda for undergoing treatment for Hepatitis-B.