From: <MAOIST_REVOLUTION@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 2:11 AM
Subject: [** MAOIST_REVOLUTION **] Indian Revolution: Post-Mortem Indicates Azad Was Shot From Close Range.
To: MAOIST_REVOLUTION@yahoogroups.com
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaUx4oamTxY
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaUx4oamTxY>
* * * * * * * * *
This article is thanks to Democracy and Class Struggle
<http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/09/azad-murdered-indi\
an-televsion-on-his.html> . The source is Rediff.
Post-Mortem Indicates Azad Was Shot From Close Range.
Posted by Rajeesh on Indian Vanguard August 24, 2010.
Top Maoist leader Azad, who the Andhra Pradesh police claimed to have
killed in an encounter on July 1, was shot from very close range,
according to his post-mortem report accessed by Rediff.com's
Krishnakumar Padamanbhan.
Top Maoist leader Azad, alias Cherukuri Rajkumar, who the Andhra Pradesh
police claimed to have killed in an encounter in the forests of Adilabad
district in Andhra Pradesh, was shot at very close range, probably from
less than one foot, according to his post mortem report, accessed by
Rediff.com
The post-mortem report stands in contradiction with the police version
that Azad was killed in a gun- battle between 11 pm and 11.30 pm on July
1 in Sarkepally village, Wankedi, in Adilabad district.
After the Andhra Pradesh police claimed Azad, a member of the Communist
Party of India-Maoist central committee and politburo as well as its
national spokesman, was killed in the forests of Adilabad district,
the Maoists claimed that he had been picked up in Nagpur a day earlier,
flown to Adilabad by helicopter, and executed in cold blood along with a
man named Hemchandra pandey.
In May, Home Minister P Chidambaram had invited Swami Agnivesh, who had
led a peace march in Chhattisgarh in April, to mediate with the Maoists
and explore the possibility of a cease-fire, which would likely result
in peace talks with the central government.
With Chidambaram's permission, Agnivesh met with senior Maoist
leaders Kobad Gandhy in Delhi's Tihar jail and Narayan Sanyai in
Raipur jail in Chhattisgarh to begin the peace process.
He also wrote to the Maoists, informing them about the government's
interest in a dialogue, to bring about a peaceful resolution to the
Leftist insurgency that has crippled life in many districts in the
country.
Azad responded on the Maoists's behalf, expressing willingness in
possible talks with the Centre and indicating that his organization
could think of a cease-fire.
One sticking point was Chidamabaram's insistence on a date for a
cease-fire, which the home minister felt would indicate the
Maoist's intentions.
Once a cease-fire – the duration of which could extend for three
days or six months or longer – was in place, Chidamabaram told
Agnivesh talks could begin.
In late June Agnivesh wrote again to Azad, suggesting three likely
dates in July when the cease-fire could go into effect.
Azad was carrying Agnivesh's letter with him the day he died.
There are other discrepancies in the police inquest and the First
Information Report, which too was accessed by Rediff.com
According to the post-mortem report, the first bullet, which killed Azad
left `a one centimetre oval-shaped wound with darkening burnt edges
present at the left second intercostal space' and exited `at
the 9th and 10th intervertebral space, lateral to the spinal vertebrae
on the left side'.
This raises two key aspects regarding the shot that killed Azad:
First, according to doctors and experts, such darkening edges in the
entry wound happens only due to burns caused by a bullet fired from very
close quarters, mostly from less than a foot.
Second, the intercostal space is the part between the two ribs. The
intervertabral space is the part between the two vertebrae. This means
that the bullet hit Azad high on the chest and exited through the middle
of his back.
For this to happen the bullet must have been fired from above the victim
at close quarters.
But according to the first information report, the police was firing at
Azad, who they said was on a hilltop, from a distance and from below.
The FIR says Azad, accompanied by 20 to 25 Maoists, opened fire on the
police from the hilltop, after which the police retaliated, killing
Azad and Hemchandra Pandey.
The Andhra Pradesh police, however, denied the fake encounter theory and
maintained that it was a genuine gun-battle.
Regarding the darkening at the entry wound, they said burn marks happen
in case of firing from a distance also.
"We have also checked that aspect with forensic experts. They say
it is possible that shots fired from a distance can also cause burn
marks," a senior officer gold Rediff com
The police report has a lot of holes in it, and raises many questions.
The gist of the FIR (crime number 40/2010) filed by Station House
Officer Mansoor Ahmed at the Wankedi police station, Adilabad, at 9.30
am, July 2 is:
Intelligence divisions informed them that a group of 20 CPI-Maoist
members had crossed into Andhra Pradesh from Maharashtra and were
moving about in the forest area.
At 9 pm, personnel from the Asifabad police station and a special
police party launched a search operation in the forested and hilly
region between Sarkepally and Velgi.
At 11 pm, the police team — equipped with night vision devices —
spotted the Maoists on a hilltop and asked them to surrender.
As the Maoists opened fire, the police retaliated in self-defence.
The firing lasted for 30 minutes after which the police climbed the
hilltop and halted.
When they searched the area early in the morning, they found two
unidentified bodies – a 50 year old man and a 30-year old man
wearing sandals with an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol lying by their
respective sides.
1. If, according to the FIR, the Maoists were on a hilltop —
which strategically means the Maoists had the terrain advantage —
how was Azad killed by a bullet fired from such close quarters that it
caused a burn?
2, The FIR is against `unknown Maoist terrorists'.
But in their inquest, accessed by Rediff.com, the police have identified
the slain Maoist as Azad at 6 am, July 2. In fact local journalists
said they got phone calls at 6 am from senior Adilabad police officers
informing them that Azad had been killed in an encounter.
"The Adilabad SP (superintendent of police) called me and other
journalists at 6 am and told us Azad had been killed in an encounter in
this area. We reached the place immediately. We searched the area
till 1 pm but were unable to locate the bodies. Then, some local
policeman came and guided us to the location. We saw the bodies of
Azad and another person," says a local journalist.
Question: If the police had already identiified Azad at 6 am, why did
they not name him in the FIR, which was filed three-and-a-half hours
later?
The FIR says the police party, which was tipped off about the presence
of the Maoists in the forest, reached there about 9pm, July 1 and with
the help of night vision devices, spotted 20 to 25 Maoists.
The FIR also says that after the gun-battle ended at 11.30 pm, the
policemen reached the hilltop and halted. It says the police party
found two bodies at 6 am when they began searching.
Question: If the police had night vision devices, as claimed in the
FIR, and if they had reached the hilltop occupied by the Maoists after
the gun -battle had ended, why did they not use the same devices to
check for hidden Maoists at that time? Why did they have to wait for
sunlight to spot the bodies.?
Outside of these discrepancies and questions arising out of the
official documentation, there are a also some other pertinent
questions.
4. In cases of encounters, the police are supposed to launch a
magisterial probe into the matter.
But in Azad's case, even 52 days after the encounter, the revenue
district officer, who is supposed to conduct the probe, has not even
issued a notification where witnesses from the general public, if any,
are called to present themselves before the magistrate.
The villagers in Sarkepally and Velgi – the place where the police
claim that the encounter happened is between these two villages –
said they saw police vehicles go to the spot on the night of July 1.
"We saw some vehicles go past our village. Then at about 11.30 I
heard gunshots, " said a villager who did not want to be named.
"We have seen encounters here in 1997 and 2005. Those times, the
police came during the day and we could hear gun shots throughout the
night. This time it was not like that. They came in the night and we
heard some shots and tht was it."
They also said there has not been any Maoist movement in the region for
at least a year.
"After 2005, their movement thinned quite a bit," a village
elder said. "In the last two years or so, there have not been any
Maoists in the area.
Kranti Chaitanya, general secretary, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties
Committee, who has challenged the police in several fake encounter
cases, said the sizes of the entry and exit wounds clearly show that
Azad was shot at close quarters, and that it raises critical doubts
about the police claim that he was killed in a gun-battle.
"Even dead bodies tell a lot of stories. In Azad's case, the
entry wounds are all narrow in diameter, meaning he was fired at from
point blank range. Had he been involved in the gun-battle and the
police had fired from the distance that they claim, the wounds would
have been bigger in diameter," Chaitanya, who recently helped
bring out a book on fake encounters, said.
Activists of the Co-ordination of Democratic Rights Organizations, who
visited the encounter spot and the Wankedi police station on a
fact-finding mission on August 21, said the encounter raised several
larger and disturbing questions.
"From our fact-finding, this is clearly a fake encounter," said
Prashant Bhushan, senior Supreme Court counsel. "But more than
the incident itself, it raises several significant issues. It is well
known that the Union home ministry was, through Swami Agnivesh, engaged
in exploring the possibility of a dialogue with the CPI-Maoist.
Agnivesh was talking to the Maoists through Azad."
"The alleged encounter in these circumstances and at such a time
raises important questions: How could the Andhra Pradesh police's
special branch, dedicated to combating Maoists, murder Azad in this
manner without the knowledge of the Union home minister and the state
government, particularly when the Union home ministry is said to be
leading the joint offensive against the Maoists?" Bhushan asked.
He said if the Union government was sincere in seeking dialogue, it
would have been "natural for Home Minister (Palaniappan)
Chidambaram to express concern about the execution of the key actor from
the Maoist side with whom he was exploring the peace dialogue."
"His explanation on the floor of Parliament was that the enquiry is
a state subject," Bhushan said. "This is unacceptable because
the Andhra Pradesh state government is run by the Congress party and had
the Union home minister sought an enquiry they could not have
refused," he said.
The umbrella organization's fact finding team also raised some
other questions.
"How did the police pinpoint the Maoists' location in a forest
several hundred square kilometres along the Andhra-Maharashtra border?
And despite 30 minutes of firing not a single police personal suffered
any injury, whereas only Azad and Hemachandra Pandey are killed –
this when the police themselves say the Maoists were on a hilltop and
they were on lower ground. ," asked Gaulam Navalakha of the
People's Union for Democratic Rights.
The activists demanded a judicial enquiry into the encouinter.
"In any case, the central government is empowered to constitute an
enquiry under the Commission of Enquiries Act, 1952. In the light of
the significance of the assassination, which has scuttled the peace
process, it is imperative that the government institute a high level
independent enquiry headed by a sitting/retired Supreme Court judge
nominated by the Chief Justice of India (images)" said activist
Kavita Srivastava, who was part of the team as an independent member.
It also demanded that an FIR be registered against the police and the
case be independently investigated in accordance with the National Human
Rights Commission guidelines.
Source: Rediff
The end.
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment