Hyderabad: A special court in Adilabad has ordered that a murder case should be booked against all the 29 policemen who were involved in the encounter killing of a prominent Maoist leader, Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, in 2011.
The court also ordered that a probe should be conducted in the circumstances in which the Central Committee member of the outlawed CPI Maoist and a journalist Hemachandar were killed on July 2 that year.
While the then Andhra Pradesh police claimed that the two were killed in an encounter in the forest area of Nagpur, the families of the two victims and several human rights groups alleged that they were nabbed by the police from a train and later killed in cold blood in a fake encounter.
Azad’s wife Padma welcomed the court orders for a probe and expressed confidence that the court will punish the policemen who were involved in the murder of her husband.
Earlier, a departmental inquiry by the AP police had given a clean chit the policemen involved in the incident.
It was challenged by the families of the two slain persons and the Revolutionary Writers Association head and prominent poet Vara Vara Rao.
Journalist Hemachandar’s wife alleged that he was killed by the police as he was eyewitness to the abduction and killing of Azad.
