'Preserve body of top Maoist commander killed in police encounter': Supreme Court to Chhattisgarh govt

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Chhattisgarh police to preserve the body of top Maoist commander Katha Ramchandra Reddy, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Narayanpur district.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih passed the order on a plea by Raja Chandra, son of the deceased.

Katha Ramchandra Reddy and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy were killed in the encounter on September 22.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioner Raja Chandra, contended that his father was allegedly tortured and killed in a fake encounter. He alleged that the police are trying to dispose of the body.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state police, submitted that two persons were killed in an encounter. Mehta said the petitioner’s father carried a bounty of Rs 7 crore placed by seven states.

The bench was informed that the body of one Maoist killed in the same encounter was given to his family and cremated while the body of the petitioner's father was in hospital.

The bench made it clear that till the high court decides the plea alleging fake encounter and torture, the body should not be either buried or cremated.

The court asked the high court to hear the matter on reopening after Durga Puja vacation.

"Till such time the high court decides the petition, the body shall not be cremated/buried," the bench said, leaving all contentions open and without expressing any opinion on merit.

Mehta submitted that the postmortem was done under video recording and no malafide can be attributed to the police.

The bench noted that the petitioner had moved before the high court but the matter could not be listed urgently as the high court was to go on a break and therefore, he moved before the apex court.

The court disposed of the petition with the directions.

The petitioner Raja Chandra, who has been a researcher at NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad, sought directions to the Chhattisgarh government to preserve the body of his father in a government morgue, to conduct postmortem, and to direct the CBI to investigate the death/murder of his father through officers from outside the state of Chhattisgarh.