Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday asked authorities to ensure that the bodies of six woodcutters, alleged to be red sanders smugglers, killed in Andhra Pradesh, are not cremated till tomorrow.
The HC directed preserving six bodies in a mortuary in Thiruvannamalai District Headquarters government hospital, 170 km from here.
The direction was in response to a petition by Muniammal of Polur of Thiruvannamalai District, wife of one of those killed, which came up for hearing before Justice M Sathyanarayanan.
Counsel for the petitioner K Balu submitted in court that apart from the bullet injuries, there were cut injuries also on the body of Sasikumar. He further contended that chemicals were also spread on the body.
The judge said he would pass orders tomorrow on the petition.
20 people were gunned down in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district in a police operation said to be against red sanders smugglers has come under severe attack from the government and political parties in Tamil Nadu which claimed 12 of the victims were labourers from their state.
Meanwhile, AIADMK supremo and former CM Jayalalithaa broke her silence on the gunning down of the alleged red sanders smuggling, raising doubts over the genuiness of the "encounter".
She urged Andhra Pradesh CM M Chandrababu Naidu to launch a fact-finding probe and initiate action based on that.
In a related development, the Supreme Court refrained from taking suo motu cognizance for ordering independent probe by CBI or a special investigation team into the controversial encounter in Chittoor district but allowed filing of a petition in this regard.
On the other hand, taking suo motu note of the incident, National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to AP government yesterday after one of its members observed that it involved 'serious violation' of human rights of the individuals and the firing cannot be justified on the ground of self defence.
Tension prevailed in Tamil Nadu today as the next of kin of two of the 20 woodcutters staged protests in Tiruvannamalai district by placing the bodies on the road seeking justice as protests over the killings continued for the third day across the state, as per PTI.
While 12 woodcutters hail from Tiruvanamalai district, seven are from Dharmapuri and one from Salem.
A scuffle broke out between police and the relatives as they refused to take away the bodies for cremation. District authorities were trying to persuade them to remove the bodies.
Protests continued in several parts of the state including Arakkonam, Hosur and Chennai against the Andhra Pradesh police operations on Tuesday.
A group of advocates of Madras High Court burnt effigies of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and said he should also be included as one of the main accused, besides demanding a CBI probe into the incident.
A Tamil outfit ransacked a retail chain store here, the founder chairman of which is Naidu. Police have detained two in connection with the incident.
Allegations came thick and fast that Andhra Pradesh police pulled out seven out of a bus and then killed them at point blank range, later dubbing it as "encounter".
"Seven poor labourers were pulled out of a bus on TN-AP border on Monday and they were among those who were later gunned down," said Tamil rights activist and coordinator of May 17 Movement Thirumurugan Gandhi.
"These are brutal murders," he said adding "justice is what we need for those killed and their families."
Raja Babu, a native of Kannamangalam in Tiruvannamalai District in Tamil Nadu too alleged that seven men from his village were taken into custody and then shot dead by Andhra Pradesh police while one managed to escape.
Of the eight woodcutters on the bus, seven were allegedly taken away by AP police, and they did not notice the eighth person, an elderly man seated in another row of seats along with a woman, Babu claimed.
The Andhra Pradesh government has dismissed the charge of a fake encounter, contending that policet had fired in self-defence.
"It was an incident where the police had to open fire in self-defence because they were terribly outnumbered," Government's Communication Advisor, Parakala Prabhakar, had said yesterday.
"Wooden logs found at the encounter site has markings and its features suggest that they were felled some time back. Burn marks and nature of injuries on the bodies of victims also corroborate that these were planned killings," Thirumurugan said.
Citing media reports, he said that in the past four years, a number of Tamil wood-cutters had systematically been "eliminated" in Andhra Pradesh.
Only "ignorant and poor Tamil wood-cutters are targeted," he alleged.
He referred to an interview of a top Chittoor police official last year to an English daily to state that there could be a nexus between politicians and smugglers.
The police official, in his interview, had said that "most red sanders smugglers have political connections."
Red sanders or red sandalwood is a protected species of tree grown in at least four districts of AP. The trees are in short supply and fetch thousands of dollars on the international black market.
Demand is high in countries such as China and Japan, where the wood is used to make furniture, musical instruments and even toys.
(With PTI inputs)
