Supreme Court miffed over Andhra Pradesh’s response in top Maoist killing row

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed displeasure at the lack of seriousness shown by Andhra Pradesh government in dealing with the allegation that top Maoist leader Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey were killed in a fake encounter by the state police.

A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice RM Lodha, while declining to grant four weeks of adjournment sought by the state government, directed it to file its affidavit by March 28.

"You are not showing the seriousness in dealing with the issue. We are not inclined to grant you such a long adjournment," the bench said while passing the direction.

At the earlier hearing on January 14 while issuing notice to the state and the Centre, the apex court had observed "we cannot allow the Republic killing its own children."

The bench had issued notices to the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government on a petition filed by social activist Swami Agnivesh and Pandey's 30-year-old widow Babita seeking a judicial probe into the controversial killings six months ago.

Seeking the replies by the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government to the notices within six weeks, the bench said "we hope there will be an answer. There will be a good and convincing answer."

"The government will have to answer so many questions," the Supreme Court had said.

Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, a senior member of banned CPI (Maoist) central committee, and Pandey, who was dubbed by the police as a Maoist, were killed in an alleged fake encounter on the intervening night of July 1-2, 2010, in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh close to Maharashtra.

Seeking a judicial probe into the killings, the petition alleged that the post-mortem reports of both the persons and a fact-finding exercise carried out by rights groups clearly indicate that the encounter was not genuine.

The petitioners referred to the fact-finding carried out by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), a national coalition of human rights organisations, that both were killed by the Andhra Pradesh police in blatant violation of their rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The petitions alleged that Azad, 58, who carried a reward of Rs12 lakh on his head and Pandey, 32, were killed from a very close range which is evident from the post-mortem reports of both the persons.