Sandalwood Encounter Fake? 7 Killed in Custody, Claim Activists

The APCLC claims that 7 of the 20 dead were picked up by the police on Monday and killed later.

The veracity of an encounter at Seshachalam forest in which 20 people were gunned down by the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force of the Andhra Pradesh Police has been questioned on many counts, with activists and opposition in the state calling it stage managed.

But now the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), has come out with some stunning allegations. They claim that seven of the 20 dead were picked up by the AP police on Monday and later killed in the ‘fake’ encounter.

According to APCLC, eight people were travelling on a Tamil Nadu bus from Thiruvanamalai district to Thirupathi. Seven were picked up by the police, but one managed to escape.

Once the bus crossed Tiruthanni and entered Andhra Pradesh, AP police entered the bus and took seven of them, who were daily wage labourers hired for cutting wood, into custody. Later when pictures of the dead bodies came in the media, their families recognized them.
– K Chaitanya of the APCLC.

Chaitanya also claims that they have a crucial witness––the eighth person on the bus, who had escaped and gone back to the village.

“It was this person who alerted the other families,” says Latha of the APCLC.

The APCLC has already approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court asking for murder charges to be slapped on all the policemen involved in the encounter.

Admitting the petition, the court has asked the state DGP to respond.

APCLC says the eighth person, the crucial witness, will be produced before the National Human Rights Commission or any judicial probe committee.

The brother of one of the seven men killed, further claimed that he identified his brother Munnisamy from pictures that were shown by the media.

According to the APCLC, Murthy, Munnisamy and Mahendran from Kannamangalam village, Palani and Perumal from Kaalasamudram village , and Sashi Kumar and Murugan from Vedagiri village were picked up by the police.