Press Statement issued by Campaign for Peace and Justice
We, as concerned citizens, feel extremely disturbed by the recent events of violence in the region of Chhattisgarh and other parts of Eastern India. We condemn the spiral of violence and counter violence between the State Security Forces and the Maoists. Though the violence has been continuing unabated, yet following the Peace and Justice March by a group of concerned citizens from Raipur to Dantewada, a peace process had been initiated. Letters were being exchanged between the Home Minister Mr. P. Chidamabaram and the spokesperson of the CPI (Maoists) Mr. Azad.
However, the recent murder–it was not an encounter as reported widely– of the person who was leading the peace process on behalf of the Maoists Mr. Azad has shocked us all. It has derailed the peace process. We condemn this killing and expect the State to:
1. set up an independent enquiry into the killing of Mr. Azad and Mr. Hem Pandey and take appropriate action.
2. clarify its position on the peace process.
3. initiate steps to facilitae the peace process and take it ahead.
Signed by
Prof. Banwarilal Sharma, Medha Patkar, Radha Bhatt, Ajit Jha, Dr. V.N. Sharma, Rajeev Lochan Shah, Neeraj Jain
03.07.2010
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Press Statement by PUDR
July 04, 2010
Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) strongly condemns the killing of Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and a free lance journalist Hemchandra Pandey at Adilabad District in Andhra Pradesh on 2nd July 2010. It has been claimed by the Andhra Pradesh police that Azad and one Sahadeva were killed in an encounter near Sarkepalli village in Jogapur forests in Wankhidi mandal, Adilabad, while some other Maoist members escaped. However, the police version is contradicted by media reports which claim that both Azad and Hemchandra Pandey (Sahadev) were picked up by the Andhra Pradesh police from Nagpur at 11 am of 1st July 2010 and brought to Adilabad and killed there. It has also been reported in the press that villagers deny having heard of any gun shots between 10pm to 2am in the night of the alleged encounter. Also it is strange that no policemen was injured in a 4 hrs long encounter. Thus, the police version of the incident is full of contradictions. And the killing could be a part of the official policy to use encounters as a means to eliminate unwanted voices through extra judicial killings.
In its directive of 1996, NHRC had clearly stated that all cases of encounters are cognizable offence until the police version is verified by an independent investigating agency and that ‘whenever information is received of encounter and death is ascertained as a result of firing by the police during the encounter, prima facie the ingredients of culpable homicide under appropriate sections of the IPC are satisfied and a magisterial inquiry shall be instituted against the encounter’. An Andhra Pradesh High Court’s ruling on encounter killings states that ‘the state is responsible to register an FIR against the encounter killing and the plea of self defence be proven before the court of law by the involved security personnel’.
In the light of all of this, PUDR demands registration of an FIR and initiation of investigation into the incident of killing of Azad and Hemchandra Pandey, without any delay. We also demand an independent magisterial inquiry as per the NHRC guidelines.
Moushumi Basu
Asish Gupta
Secretaries, PUDR
4th July, 2010
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