November 23, 2016
All Indian University Students Fact Finding team:
Preliminary report released to the press
*In the view of different narratives presented by Police, Maoists, Rights’
organizations and Tribals, a team constituting of university students
particularly research scholars from 12 different universities across the
country have decided to conduct a fact finding to reveal the truths behind
the entire episode which has claimed 32 lives.
The fact finding team with almost 26 members has studied the entire event by
meeting and interacting with the relatives of the dead including Maoists, Police
and Tribals, visiting the site of ‘encounter’, and nearby tribal villages such as
Baakuru, Bejjangi, Gussam Podar, Kojjiri guda, Bachhal podar as well as the
village of Abu Bakar (Gajuvaka) and Munna (Alakurapadu). The team could
make some observations which are different from the statements or
declarations made by the DGP as well as the media. Few of the observations
are presented as preliminary report for the purpose of today’s press
conference.*
No traces of cross firing :
Andhra Pradesh DGP has described the entire episode as an event of
crossfire or exchange of fire between them and Maoists. However we could
not found any evidence of exchange of fire on the site. The fact finding
team divided into the teams of five has searched every inch of the
‘encounter’ site. Nowhere in the encounter field around 300 feet, could we
find the traces of bullet wounds, blood stains, or even any traces of
friction between them. Andhra DGP by displaying the weapons said to found
in the ‘encounter site’ has stated that the Maoists have used highly lethal
weapons. If this stands true the amount of destruction should be high with
high amount bloodshed. But this is not the case when we observed the site.
We could observe a bullet wound on a tree and also we could find an un used
bullet on the site.
Why the evidences were burnt?
When we observed the site of ‘encounter’ we could find some things used by
Maoists such as water cans, plates, tiffin boxes, umbrellas (28), glasses,
shaving creams, lifebuoy soaps, etc. These things were found burnt in a
single place. We could also observe huge amount of cut long hair. If the
police after the episode could display the arms procured from the
‘encounter’ site before the media why did they burnt the other stuff of the
Maoists if not to bury any traces of evidences.
The things left un burnt such as few magazines of ‘Arunatara’ editions of
July and August, 2016 of Virasam (Revolutionary Writers Association) and
Vaartha news paper (October 10, 14, 19) and Eenaadu (October 29) reveal
that they might stayed there for more than a week. It also reveals that the
police has selectively tried to establish as direct link between the Maoist
party and Virasam.
What about mutilations of the bodies?
The first hand witnesses revealed that when an aadivasi girl named Jammi
khora who tried to hide in a bush nearby upon hearing the heavy firing
sound, she was dragged out by the police by pulling by both hands and was
killed.
In the similar lines the villagers who have seen the dead body of Laxman
Pangi (tribe) has revealed that they found the face of the dead burnt after
pouring hot water.
According to the direct witness stated by the villagers of Ramaguda named
Lachha modali, Donbru Killoyila, the police have fired at a house in which
an aadivasi woman who ran for life after hearing the firing hide. We could
notice the three bullet injuries on the wall of the house in Ramguda. In
addition when Lachha Modali went on to Balimela reservoir to take out the
fish net at 6 am the police has fired at him indiscriminately so he flew
the site by swimming and hinding in hills only to return after a day in the
evening to his village.
The father of dead Maoist Daniel hailing from the infamous Wakapally has
said that he found marks of cuts made by axe on the face of Daniel along
with bullet wounds on head and temple shot at point blank. He along with
other relatives could also found the hands of Daniel being twisted. These
evidences he said were present before the postmortem. It needs to be
hightlighted here that even though they were taking the body of Daniel
after fulfilling all the necessary formalities they were harassed by the
police on their way near Chintapalli.
What about the 11 missing Aadivasis?
An aadivasi Jayaram Khilla native of Khojjiri guda who was air lifted by
the helicopter from the site of ‘encounter’ along with other 10 aadivasis
from nearby villages went missing from the day of the ‘encounter’. The
visual of Jayaram being lifted by helicopter was also telecasted in news
channels.
Violations of rights and law :
The guidelines declared by NHRC as well as the honorable Supreme Court
state that the details of the dead should be informed to his parents or
relatives while that of unidentified should be disclosed through media, and
the procedure of postmortem should be video recorded. However these
guidelines have been violated in every means possible.
What about the alcohol box labels as well as condoms?
200 meters away from the Ramguda village in the place where police have
stationed the team could observe along with socks, labels of alcohol bottle
boxes as well as used condoms. This raises doubts regarding the chances of
sexual assault on the aadivasi women who were caught red handed by the
police.
Propagation of lies about our visit and pressure created on family members
Our Fact finding team has in advance on November 3, 2016 intimated DGPs of
both AP and Odisha through mail, fax regarding our visit. We also talked to
PRO of DGP, AP. We also tried communicating to them through various
newspapers regarding our visit. The rural SP, Rahul dev Sharma has denied
any information regarding our visit as well as we were harassed on our way
to the ‘encounter’ site.
We were stopped at every village and our jeeps
were checked and repeatedly were asked to display and handover id cards. On
the one hands we were asked to do the observations neutrally without any
bias while on the other hand we were pressurized, harassed and haunted
continuously. Since we have declared the details of the team members on the
media the family members of our team members (David,Valarmathi and Satish)
were harassed and threatened by the police.
By sending the police to our homes our family members were terrorized.
This however reveals that the police are trying hard to not to let us study
and reveal the facts about the entire episode. Various hurdles were created to defame the fact finding
team as biased by deliberate rallies organized by the police in every place
where we visited.
Doubt about the death of police constable :
Even though the dead constable knows swimming as declared by his father is
said to be died by drowning in the exchange of fire. A well trained
paramilitary constable dying by drowning raises many questions about his
death.
Distortions by the media :
While we were involved in the fact finding by visiting the families of
Maoists, aadivasis and the police several news papers particularly
published from Ongole have stated that the fact finding team consoled the
family of the dead. We would like to declare that our entire visit was
neutral and was with the intention of enquiry. We request the concerned
media to correct themselves. We would like to declare that we did not
involve in consoling any family but we were motivated to study the facts.
ALL INDIAN UNIVERSITY FACT FINDING TEAM
15/11/2016
All Indian University Students Fact Finding team:
Preliminary report released to the press
*In the view of different narratives presented by Police, Maoists, Rights’
organizations and Tribals, a team constituting of university students
particularly research scholars from 12 different universities across the
country have decided to conduct a fact finding to reveal the truths behind
the entire episode which has claimed 32 lives.
The fact finding team with almost 26 members has studied the entire event by
meeting and interacting with the relatives of the dead including Maoists, Police
and Tribals, visiting the site of ‘encounter’, and nearby tribal villages such as
Baakuru, Bejjangi, Gussam Podar, Kojjiri guda, Bachhal podar as well as the
village of Abu Bakar (Gajuvaka) and Munna (Alakurapadu). The team could
make some observations which are different from the statements or
declarations made by the DGP as well as the media. Few of the observations
are presented as preliminary report for the purpose of today’s press
conference.*
No traces of cross firing :
Andhra Pradesh DGP has described the entire episode as an event of
crossfire or exchange of fire between them and Maoists. However we could
not found any evidence of exchange of fire on the site. The fact finding
team divided into the teams of five has searched every inch of the
‘encounter’ site. Nowhere in the encounter field around 300 feet, could we
find the traces of bullet wounds, blood stains, or even any traces of
friction between them. Andhra DGP by displaying the weapons said to found
in the ‘encounter site’ has stated that the Maoists have used highly lethal
weapons. If this stands true the amount of destruction should be high with
high amount bloodshed. But this is not the case when we observed the site.
We could observe a bullet wound on a tree and also we could find an un used
bullet on the site.
Why the evidences were burnt?
When we observed the site of ‘encounter’ we could find some things used by
Maoists such as water cans, plates, tiffin boxes, umbrellas (28), glasses,
shaving creams, lifebuoy soaps, etc. These things were found burnt in a
single place. We could also observe huge amount of cut long hair. If the
police after the episode could display the arms procured from the
‘encounter’ site before the media why did they burnt the other stuff of the
Maoists if not to bury any traces of evidences.
The things left un burnt such as few magazines of ‘Arunatara’ editions of
July and August, 2016 of Virasam (Revolutionary Writers Association) and
Vaartha news paper (October 10, 14, 19) and Eenaadu (October 29) reveal
that they might stayed there for more than a week. It also reveals that the
police has selectively tried to establish as direct link between the Maoist
party and Virasam.
What about mutilations of the bodies?
The first hand witnesses revealed that when an aadivasi girl named Jammi
khora who tried to hide in a bush nearby upon hearing the heavy firing
sound, she was dragged out by the police by pulling by both hands and was
killed.
In the similar lines the villagers who have seen the dead body of Laxman
Pangi (tribe) has revealed that they found the face of the dead burnt after
pouring hot water.
According to the direct witness stated by the villagers of Ramaguda named
Lachha modali, Donbru Killoyila, the police have fired at a house in which
an aadivasi woman who ran for life after hearing the firing hide. We could
notice the three bullet injuries on the wall of the house in Ramguda. In
addition when Lachha Modali went on to Balimela reservoir to take out the
fish net at 6 am the police has fired at him indiscriminately so he flew
the site by swimming and hinding in hills only to return after a day in the
evening to his village.
The father of dead Maoist Daniel hailing from the infamous Wakapally has
said that he found marks of cuts made by axe on the face of Daniel along
with bullet wounds on head and temple shot at point blank. He along with
other relatives could also found the hands of Daniel being twisted. These
evidences he said were present before the postmortem. It needs to be
hightlighted here that even though they were taking the body of Daniel
after fulfilling all the necessary formalities they were harassed by the
police on their way near Chintapalli.
What about the 11 missing Aadivasis?
An aadivasi Jayaram Khilla native of Khojjiri guda who was air lifted by
the helicopter from the site of ‘encounter’ along with other 10 aadivasis
from nearby villages went missing from the day of the ‘encounter’. The
visual of Jayaram being lifted by helicopter was also telecasted in news
channels.
Violations of rights and law :
The guidelines declared by NHRC as well as the honorable Supreme Court
state that the details of the dead should be informed to his parents or
relatives while that of unidentified should be disclosed through media, and
the procedure of postmortem should be video recorded. However these
guidelines have been violated in every means possible.
What about the alcohol box labels as well as condoms?
200 meters away from the Ramguda village in the place where police have
stationed the team could observe along with socks, labels of alcohol bottle
boxes as well as used condoms. This raises doubts regarding the chances of
sexual assault on the aadivasi women who were caught red handed by the
police.
Propagation of lies about our visit and pressure created on family members
Our Fact finding team has in advance on November 3, 2016 intimated DGPs of
both AP and Odisha through mail, fax regarding our visit. We also talked to
PRO of DGP, AP. We also tried communicating to them through various
newspapers regarding our visit. The rural SP, Rahul dev Sharma has denied
any information regarding our visit as well as we were harassed on our way
to the ‘encounter’ site.
We were stopped at every village and our jeeps
were checked and repeatedly were asked to display and handover id cards. On
the one hands we were asked to do the observations neutrally without any
bias while on the other hand we were pressurized, harassed and haunted
continuously. Since we have declared the details of the team members on the
media the family members of our team members (David,Valarmathi and Satish)
were harassed and threatened by the police.
By sending the police to our homes our family members were terrorized.
This however reveals that the police are trying hard to not to let us study
and reveal the facts about the entire episode. Various hurdles were created to defame the fact finding
team as biased by deliberate rallies organized by the police in every place
where we visited.
Doubt about the death of police constable :
Even though the dead constable knows swimming as declared by his father is
said to be died by drowning in the exchange of fire. A well trained
paramilitary constable dying by drowning raises many questions about his
death.
Distortions by the media :
While we were involved in the fact finding by visiting the families of
Maoists, aadivasis and the police several news papers particularly
published from Ongole have stated that the fact finding team consoled the
family of the dead. We would like to declare that our entire visit was
neutral and was with the intention of enquiry. We request the concerned
media to correct themselves. We would like to declare that we did not
involve in consoling any family but we were motivated to study the facts.
ALL INDIAN UNIVERSITY FACT FINDING TEAM
15/11/2016
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