Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF)

KARIMNAGAR FACT FINDING REPORT

29^th September 2005.

Team Members:

1. Rajkishore, General Secretary, Revolutionary Democratic Forum (RDF), Patna
2. Harisingh Tarq, President, Association For Democratic Rights (AFDR), Punjaba
3. Harigian Chowdary, Reporter, Haryana.
4. Ajay, Revolutionary Democratic Forum (RDF), Haryana
5. Surender, General Secretary, Maharastra Chapter, International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL)

The team went to Ambatpally village of Mahadevpur Mandal that falls in Mahadevpur police station limits, Karimnagar District. Ambatpalli village is situated near the river Godavari at the border of Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh, about 250 K.M from the state capital Hyderabad. Population of this village around 2500 to 3000 mostly comprises of peasants.

Victim Mr. Kilinga Rao aged 37 years survived with mother, father, three brothers, wife and two children. Daughter Mounika is about 13 years and son, Vishnuwardhan is about 3 years old. Mr. Kilinga Rao was killed on 15^th Sept 2005 by self proclaimed “Victims of Naxalites”. One day before i.e. on 14^th September 2005 his killing, Maoists killed a person belonging to Barmagudem village reportedly alleged as a police informer in Ambatpalli village.

The Fact Finding Team met the kin and kith of the victim Mr. Kilinga Rao along with some villagers. According to eye witness five to six unidentified persons came in the morning about 5 O’clock in a car. Two of them went to Mr. Kilinga Rao’s house while the others remained in the car. They woke up Mr. Kilinga Rao’s wife sleeping in the house and asked her “who is Kilinga Rao? Mr. Kilinga Rao introduced himself to the two people. They asked him to show the house of village Surpunch. As Mr. Kilinga Rao was ready to leave for Warangal, he replied them to enquire in village. However both of them forcibly taken Mr. Kilinga Rao in the car and fled away.

Suspecting danger, family members took a vehicle and proceeded to Mahadevpur police station. Hardly 1 K.M from their house they found the dead body of Mr. Kilinga Rao with a cut on the lift side of the neck. The news of killing Mr. Kilinga Rao was spread out immediately in the village as well as surrounding villages. People around 2000 gathered instantly and went to the Mahadevpur P.S. and gheraoed the P.S. People demanded to nab the culprits’ immediately and take action against them. The angry people set one bus on fire. Police assured them to nab and arrest the culprits. After the assurance from the police, people with drawn their demonstration.

Interestingly till 16^th September 2005 police did not come to the place of incident. Police neither took the dead body for post-mortem nor did the panchanama. Police asked the family members to take the dead body to General Hospital of Mahadevpur. The dead body was brought back to Ambatpalli village and cremated on the same day.

Family members and villagers were in an impression that Mr. Kilinga Rao was by Police in retaliation to the killing of an informer by Maoists. However on the next day the murder was owned by “Victims of Naxalites” in the media.

Mr. Kilinga Rao’s kind heart and helping nature won the hearts of the peoples in the surrounding 20 villages near by Ambatpalli. We came to know that Mr. Kilinga Rao was never implicated in any case by the police in any time before his murder. There was no threat to him earlier either by police or by so-called “Victims of Naxalites” or by Cobra Gangs. Villagers claimed that as he was very popular and beloved amongst the people of 20 villages, police might have thought that Mr. Kilinga Rao is a sympathiser of Maoists and killed him on the name of so-called “Victims of Naxalites”. However villagers and the family categorically denied any connections with Naxalites or their activities to Mr. Kilinga Rao.

The fact finding committee visited the villages 12 days after the incident found surprisingly that police neither arrested any one nor interrogated any body on suspicion at least. On contrary police called villagers for interrogation in Bus burnt case and they informed the people that Mr. Kiling Rao was killed by “Victims of Naxalites and they cannot do anything in this case. The fact finding team in these circumstances had come to a conclusion that probably culprits might have killed Mr. Kilinga Rao at the behest of police.

The team also met Mr. L.Veeranna, Assistant executive engineer in irrigation department who got threatening calls from Kakatiya Cobras. He said that “on 11^th September 2005 a list consists of 8 persons was issued by so called ‘Kakatiya Cobras’ in the local and electronic media threatening to kill them. In this list his name was also figured”. Two years back Mr. L. Veeranna was picked up by police from his house at mid night around 1P.M. His house was searched without any search warrant. His wife requested the S.I not to arrest her husband. But the request was turn down by police and she went to unconscious state on falling into the ground as the police thrashed her. In spite of being in unconscious state she left alone and Mr. L. Veeranna was taken to police station. He was kept in illegal custody for two days and police tortured him brutally. He was produced before Mandal Revenue Officer after two days, where he was released on personal bond. His daily work was under surveillance of police causing him a lot of mental tension. Many times he got death threatening calls from police at his residence as well as at his office.

During the fact finding we met Ambati Srinivas (45), advocate of Narasmpet Mandal, Warangal District who was also district t Secretary of APCLC. His name along with Dr.Burra Ramulu and 6 six others appeared in the threatening list issued by Kakatiya Cobras. Three backs Ambati Srinivas nephew Paka Srinivas and his friend Kodi Anand were arrested at Mahboobabad and taken to Narasampet police station. From there they were taken to Parkkal forest and killed in a fake encounter. Mr. Ambati Srinivas found the marks of torture and injuries on the dead bodies. He requested the senior officials to register a case under 302 of IPC against the C.I Gulam Sandhani who involved in the encounter. Gulam Sandhani threatened Ambati Srinivas in the court itself to kill him. Ambati Srinivas protested and filed a complaint petition in the district court and was accepted against the C.I. Gulam Sandhani. Again Sandhani warned Ambati Srinivas and misled the senior officials. However, he was transferred to other place. With an apprehension of danger Ambati Srinivas filed a case in High Court with the help of K.G. Kannabiran. High court ordered to provide two gunmen for his security. Police gave two gunmen to Ambati Srinivas. Ambati Srinivas withdrew the gunmen after one year. In 1996, some police men were killed in a landmine blast of Naxalites at Jakaram village. Police took a profession against the landmine blast and raised slogans to kill Ambati Srinivas and Dr.Burra Ramulu. Since then Ambati Srinivas is getting threatening calls. This is situation in Karimnagar district where mass organisation leaders and activists are under severe state repression.