Azad not shot at from point-blank range: Andhra DGP

The Andhra Pradesh police tonight dismissed as "baseless" the allegations of civil rights groups that CPI (Maoist) Central Committee spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was shot at from point blank range in a fake encounter.

"There is absolutely nothing in the post mortem report to indicate that the firing was resorted to at point-blank range", state director general of police RR Girish Kumar said in a statement here.

"There are absolutely no contradictions either in post-mortem report or in the FIR. The post-mortem report is being falsely misinterpreted by Naxal-backed civil rights activists and its frontal organisations", he said.

"A section of vested interest groups at the behest of CPI (Maoists) have been making false and baseless allegations against police by misquoting the contents of the post-mortem examination report and FIR," Kumar alleged.

The activists of frontal organizations of Maoists have picked up only those words selectively from the post-mortem report and FIR "which suit the requirement of their motivated campaign", Kumar said.

"I would like to inform the members of the public that this encounter between the police and Maoists is "real and genuine undoubtedly,” the DGP said.

Azad and another person, claimed to be a journalist Hemachandra Pandey, were killed in an exchange of fire with police in the deep jungles in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on the intervening night of July 1 and 2.

Kumar said police followed NHRC guidelines in letter and spirit and transparency was maintained at every stage of police action and further investigation.

"The actions of police in every case of exchange of fire are subject to scrutiny by statutory authorities at different levels. In this present case also, the post-mortem examination report and all the other evidence will be subjected to scrutiny by competent judicial and quasi-judicial authorities," he added.

A group of rights activists led by Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan had recently claimed it had evidence to show Azad and Pandey were killed in a "fake" encounter.

Pro-Maoist writer Varavara Rao had also demanded a judicial inquiry into the killing of Azad.