AP govt to allow cremation on humanitarian grounds

The Y S Rajashekhara Reddy-government had conceded one of the demands of CPI (Maoists) when they came for peace talks with the state government in October 2004.
“The demand was accepted as a humanitarian issue,” says senior editor Pothuri Venka­teswar Rao who was one of the mediators for the talks then.

The AP  government had facilitated the movement of the dead bodies of slain Maoists in  the state to  their native villages  for  last rites.  Wherever the families were not in  a position to come and take custody, civil rights activists  Varavara Rao, G Kalyan Rao, Gaddar  etc took lead to ensure  handing over of the bodies to families.

When then DGP Swaranjit Sen  prevented  such practice in some cases,  the  activists staged dharnas and finally through political intervention got the process permitted in spite of the police department’s dissent.

It would be used to glorify the bloodshed and violent movement, he had said when a HRC judge directed him to give the body to the relatives.

Of the nearly 24  top guns  of CPI ( Maoist movement )  killed in various encounters,  many of them were in  Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra  and Odisha, about  17 to  18 bodies  have been handed over to relatives.

In other cases,  long  delay in identification had led to heavy decomposing of bodies and subsequent  funeral rites conducted by the police on court orders. This include two such cases in Jharkhand, three in Chattisgarh  and  two in Odisha.

According to state intelligence sources, nearly 154 left wing activists were killed since 2005. Other  than 24 top guns, others  were  lower cadres.

The bodies of lower cadres were disposed off by police and local authorities as in many cases there was no proper identity and nobody came to claim their bodies,  said a police officer.

Saturday night, the mortal remains of Kishenji,were not allowed to be kept at the Tank Bund to facilitate public to offer their tributes, as his sympathisers planned. The police, saw to it that the body is taken from the airport to Pedapalli through an alternative route.