Telangana High Court Made A Statment On Autopsies of Maoists

The Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi Of Telangana high court,ordered authorities to take steps to ensure the autopsy is done by forensic experts and senior medical officers and steps are taken to hand over bodies to relatives. The Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the Telangana government to conduct autopsies and hand over the bodies of slain Maoists to their families. The encounter site falls within Chhattisgarh territory, but some of the slain Maoists were brought to Bhadrachalam hospital in Telangana.

The bench gave this direction while hearing a PIL filed by Gaddam Lakshman, president of the Civil Liberties Committee. The petitioner said the bodies of Naxalites are at a government hospital at Bhadrachalam and NHRC directions need to be followed. The case was moved as a special lunch motion and the bench permitted it to be taken up. V Raghunath, counsel for the petitioner, complained about the way bodies were kept.

Telangana additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao said the encounter took place in Chhattisgarh and Hyderabad High Court may not have jurisdiction. The bench said when bodies are in Bhadrachalam, the court can give directions. It directed the state to follow a similar procedure for all bodies brought to Bhadrachalam. The autopsy will be done by forensic experts and the process should be videographed, the bench said.

The court was told by Additional Advocate General that due to security reasons, the bodies were brought to Bhadrachalam. The petitioner sought a CBI inquiry or probe by Special Investigation team and registration of murder cases against police for killing citizens. The case will be taken up after two weeks.