HRF and HRW demands criminal prosecution against police personnel

The Hindu

13 hours ago

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded criminal prosecution of police personnel responsible for the killing of three Maoist armed squad members on the morning of June 18, 2025 in the forest area of Rampachodavaram mandal in Alluri Sitharama Raju district, Andhra Pradesh.
In a statement released by HRF on Monday (July 21), they noted that those involved must be booked under relevant provisions of the law, including murder and the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It is imperative that an independent, impartial investigation — either by the CBI or under Supreme Court monitoring — be taken up. It cannot be entrusted to the local police, regular or special, since they are implicated in the crime, as HRF's AP and TS coordination committee member V. Krishna said.
A three-member HRF and HRW team on July 18, 2025 visited the Rampachodavaram Agency area on a fact-finding into the 'encounter'.
'We spoke with Adivasis of several villages in the Vemulakonda and Akuru panchayats as well as residents of Kintukuru, a remote habitation. The version of the police that a combing party of Greyhounds personnel were fired upon by the Maoists and the retaliatory fire in self-defence resulted in the death of three Maoists is a patent falsehood,' Mr. Krishna told The Hindu on Monday.
The rights activists alleged that the three Maoists were ambushed and executed in a burst of one-sided firing by the Greyhounds in the early morning of June 18.
The Maoists had encamped deep in the forest area at a location about 3.5 km to the West of Kintukuru village. The camp is at a place referred locally as 'Oota mamidi' a perennial spring abutting a mango tree. Just behind it is a rivulet that flows East to merge with the Pamuleru vaagu. The three Maoists had camped at that spot for over two weeks.
A large contingent of Greyhounds went via Kintukuru (Akuru panchayat) past midnight of June 17. They evidently had precise detail of the camp location, which they surrounded from two sides to the South. The Greyhounds opened fire at daybreak, killing all three Maoists. There was no exchange of fire — no crossfire — only a targeted execution. The Greyhounds could have easily apprehended the three alive but they chose to kill them instead, the HRF and HRW members alleged.
The three Maoists killed were Gajarla Ravi (of Velishala village in Chityala mandal, Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, Telangana), who was also a member of the Central Committee of the banned Maoist party, Venkata Ravivarma Chaitanya (of Karakavanipalem in Pendurthi mandal, Visakhapatnam district, A.P.) and Kovvasi Anju, an Adivasi from Bodagubal village, Konta block, Sukma district of Chattisgarh.
The bodies were taken to the Rampachodavaram Area Hospital the same evening, but the post-mortem was deliberately delayed until the next day. Relatives were forced to wait, plead, and it was only after sustained media pressure that they ultimately received the decomposed bodies late on the night of June 19. By the time they were brought home, the bodies were infested with worms, HRF A.P. State general secretary Y Rajesh said.
Since January 2024, over 440 Maoists and unarmed civilians — preponderantly Adivasis in Chattisgarh — have been killed in encounters, many of them allegedly staged, they alleged.
'We call on the Central and State governments in Maoist-affected regions to immediately halt this campaign,' HRW A.P. State president Balu Akkisa said. HRF and HRW are of the opinion that the Maoists' repeated offers to cease hostilities and pursue peace talks warrants the government's utmost seriousness and constructive engagement.