Chittoor firing: AP govt submits re-postmortem report to HC

The Andhra Pradesh government submitted the 're-postmortem' reports to the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday, of six out of the 20 people who were killed in the police firing in Seshachalam forests of Chittoor district on April 7.

The Andhra Pradesh government submitted the 're-postmortem' reports to the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday, of six out of the 20 people who were killed in the police firing in Seshachalam forests of Chittoor district on April 7.

A division bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P V Sanjay Kumar postponed the matter to April 24 after they were informed that the FSL report pertaining to the 20 people killed in the firing was still awaited.

Additional Advocate General D Srinivas said that the FSL report of the 20 people will be submitted on April 24. The state government had on Monday submitted to the High Court the first postmortem report of the 20 people killed in the firing.

The 're-postmortem' was sought by the family members of the six people who alleged that the firing incident was a "brutal and planned murder" by the Special Task Force (STF) of Andhra Pradesh Police.

The High Court had last week ordered fresh autopsies of six victims of the police firing in Seshachalam forests. Accordingly, a team of doctors from Osmania Medical College conducted re-postmortem of the six bodies in Tamil Nadu.

Twenty people were gunned down in Seshachalam hill ranges of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh on April 7 in an operation carried out by the police. The High Court had on April 13 made Muniyammal, the wife of one of the victims Sashi Kumar, a co-petitioner in the case filed by Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) which alleges that those killed in the firing were poor labourers from Tamil Nadu.

In her complaint, registered with the Chandragiri police in Chittoor, Muniyammal alleged that "it was not an encounter death (as claimed by the police) but was a well-planned and organised crime, committed by the STF (special task force of police)."

Subsequently, based on her complaint, AP police registered an FIR under sections 302 (murder) and 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) against the "unknown" STF personnel.