Andhra Pradesh encounter: High Court rejects DGP JV Ramudu's report

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday rejected the report submitted by the state Director General of Police JV Ramudu, and directed him to appear in the court later on Friday.

Meanwhile, counsel for the petitioner V Ragunath raised questions about the legality of the FIR which was registered by the Andhra Police. "The court raised two questions. Firstly, how lawful is an FIR registered against a dead person? And secondly which agency is investigating the case. When the DGP himself is a party to the Task Force, how can the investigation be handled by the SDPO?" Raghunath said.

"On behalf of the victims, we told the court that the FIR registered is against a dead person and 450 other unknown people. Never in the history of free India has such an FIR been lodged," he added.

The Madras High Court has ordered the bodies of the six victims to be preserved at the Thiruvannamalai Government Hospital. The victims' lawyer, K. Balu, said that a petition for a post-mortem had been filed and that a petition to transfer the case to the Andhra High Court had also been filed.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the DGP of Andhra Pradesh, calling for an explanation for the act of the police and forest officials within two weeks. The matter shall be taken up for hearing in the camp sitting of the commission to be held at Hyderabad on April 23.