Yellappa’s death was murder, says fact finding team

Yellappa’s death was murder, says fact finding team

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sept. 23, 2012: An independent fact-finding committee, formed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Kerala unit, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL) in Tamil Nadu, and People’s Democratic Front (PDF) of Karnataka, has come to the conclusion that Yellappa was not killed in an encounter and that the police have concealed facts.

 

The above-mentioned four organizations led a delegation to the place where Yellappa was allegedly killed in an encounter, a village called Kulkunta Paligadde in Bisale Ghats in Subramanya Police Station on September 2.

The committee has submitted a five-page report, which states of all the 14 bullets fired into Yellappa’s body passed through him, indicating that he was shot at close range.

K. Kranti Chaitanya of APCLC points out that police records show that the police had engaged a group of Naxals for around 10 minutes, but the fact-finding committee did not find any signs of firing. The villagers in the vicinity also did not hear any shots.

The fact-finding team also accused the police of not giving them a copy of the postmortem report when they asked for it. They also alleged that the police had not made any attempts to arrest Naxals alive. They demanded that the ANF combing team must be booked under Section 302 of the IPC, a judicial inquiry must be conducted into the encounter deal, the ANF team must be suspended, and combing operations must be stopped.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire announced by the state government ends today night. Alok Kumar, ANF IGP, told reporters that the situation will be reviewed Monday morning and action will be taken accordingly.