New Delhi: One of the survivors of the police firing in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh where 20 people were killed, today raised apprehensions over returning to his village in Tamil Nadu saying he was scared over alleged presence of police to detain him.
"I am afraid," was Sekar's response when asked at a press conference here whether he would return to his village in backdrop of the police firing, in which he lost two of his fellow villagers.
Hailing from a remote village in backward Tiruvannamalai district of north Tamil Nadu, the 54-year-old man survived even as those accompanying him died allegedly in the police firing across the border.
Human rights activist Henri Tiphange, who brought two persons from Tamil Nadu connected with the firing incident to depose before NHRC members alleged that Sekar was frightened as police from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh were staying in his village to take him into custody.
"In fact, cops from Andhra Pradesh were waiting for taking him into custody since he is an eye witness. That's why, we have sought police protection from NHRC for these two persons," he said.
The duo, Sekar and Balachandran, today voluntarily deposed before the NHRC members and officials to record their statements in connection with the firing and sought police protection.
Tiphange claimed that another survivor Balachandran (29) also escaped as he missed a bus that was on its way to Andhra Pradesh.
The two belonging to neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu were wooed to forests in Andhra Pradesh with false job offers to work elsewhere in the state (Tamil Nadu) and Puducherry by brokers.
"Accompanied by their brokers, the two were travelling in two different buses toward Tirupathi, which were intercepted allegedly by some men," Tiphange said, adding that the interceptors did not nab Sekar even as they picked his accomplice.
He also said that a third witness named Illangovan was also available in this case, who allegedly escaped from the police after he was detained.
NHRC directed Tamil Nadu police to give protection to the two persons even as it ordered the Government of Andhra Pradesh to conduct a Magisterial enquiry into the firing.
Twenty people from Tamil Nadu were gunned down in a police operation in Seshachalam hill ranges of Chittoor district on April 7 even as the family members and relatives of the deceased alleged that the incident was a "planned murder" by AP Police.
