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AP releases video to justify action against 'smugglers'

Naidu briefs Rajnath; NHRC to probe
Last Updated 08 April 2015, 21:04 IST

Facing the heat from human rights organisations for shooting dead 20 red sandalwood “smugglers” on Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh Police have released CCTV footage from the Seshachalam forests to show that their actions were necessitated.

The footage, drawn from night vision-capable CCTV cameras in the Seshachalam ranges, showed the movement of a group of woodcutters with a bullock cart carrying logs of red sanders in Ethagunta and Cheekatikona.

The Special Task Force (STF), which has intensified its combing operations to nab the remaining smugglers, said the footage showed woodcutters entering the forest on Monday, a day before the encounter.

Since then, it has arrested 14 suspects, of whom three were confirmed to be smugglers, and confiscated logs of red sandalwood valued at Rs 1.5 crore.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday strongly defended the STF’s actions, stating that the police had specific information and ample evidence to show that the deceased were part of a “smuggling gang”.

Naidu told this to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during a briefing about the encounter and even said  his government was open for an investigation.

The Centre, however, has sought a detailed report from the Andhra Pradesh. It has asked the state police for information about the operation, the personnel involved in it and the law and order situation after the shootout.

Backing Naidu, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Environment and Forests B Gopalakrishna Reddy said that woodcutters from Tamil Nadu had not come to the state’s forests “just to cut grass”.

“We have been urging those involved with smuggling the precious wood to put a stop to their clandestine activity as the government is determined to save it for future,” Reddy said.

He added that the Andhra Pradesh government is determined to bring the people behind smuggling to justice, “whoever they are”.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the 20 woodcutters have been identified.
 
Inspector General of Police (South Zone) V Venugopal Krishna said all the postmortems were completed at Rua hospital in Tirupati.

He confirmed that the deceased were from Tamil Nadu, eight of them from Villupuram, eight others from Tiruvannamalai and four from Vellore.

The IGP said relatives of the woodcutters had started arriving at Rua hospital and the bodies were being released only after verifying credentials and relevant documents.
Human rights groups have continued to voice their objection to the killings, with some even alleging that the police took the law into their own hands.

“There must be a criminal investigation to determine whether the police used excessive force and whether the killings amount to fake encounters or staged extrajudicial executions,” said Abhirr VP, campaigner at Amnesty International India.

The Communist Party of India and several rights groups even protested in front of the mortuary where the bodies of the 20 woodcutters were kept, demanding action against STF members who took part in the encounter.

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation services to different destinations remained suspended in Tamil Nadu following incidents of stone pelting and petrol bomb attacks on its buses near the inter-state border. Buses from Tamil Nadu, however, continued to operate from Tirupati.
 

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(Published 08 April 2015, 21:04 IST)

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