The Supreme Court on Friday directed 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 on September 22.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A.G. Masih ordered that the body shall not be buried or cremated until the Chhattisgarh High Court decides on a plea alleging torture and a staged encounter. “Till such time the high court decides the petition, the body shall not be cremated/buried,” the bench stated, while requesting the high court to urgently hear the case upon reopening after the Durga Puja vacation.
The court clarified that it was leaving all contentions open and refrained from making any observations on the merits of the allegations.
The petition was filed by Raja Chandra, son of the deceased, through advocate Satya Mitra. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioner, argued that his father had been tortured and killed in a fake encounter, and that the police were attempting to hurriedly dispose of the body. The plea also sought an independent probe, preferably by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), excluding officers from Chhattisgarh, along with a fresh postmortem.
Raja Chandra, a researcher at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, requested that his father’s body be preserved in a government morgue until an impartial investigation is carried out.
Appearing for the Chhattisgarh police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that two Maoists, including Reddy and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy, were killed in the encounter. He added that Katha Ramchandra Reddy carried a ₹7 crore bounty announced by seven states.
Mehta further informed the bench that while the body of the second deceased Maoist was handed over to his family for cremation, Reddy’s body remains in hospital custody. He stressed that the postmortem had been conducted under video recording, leaving no scope for attributing mala fides to the police.
The bench noted that while the petitioner had first approached the Chhattisgarh High Court, the matter could not be heard on an urgent basis due to the court’s vacation. Consequently, he approached the apex court for interim relief.
Disposing of the plea, the Supreme Court directed the preservation of the body until the high court rules on the matter.
