High Court directs re-post mortem of Linganna

Source: thehindu.com

The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the State government to conduct a re-postmortem examination of P. Linganna, who died in an alleged exchange of fire with the police near Nandi hillock of Rollagadda village outskirts in Bhadadri-Kothagudem district on Wednesday.

While the Bhadradri-Kothagudem police, in an official statement, said the 43-year-old Linganna was a Naxalite of Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (New Democracy Group), the TS Civil Liberties Committee claimed he was an “activist fighting for the rights of the tribal people”.

CLC president G. Laxman filed a public interest petition (PIL) seeking a direction to the government to conduct autopsy again and charged it was a ‘fake encounter’. Counsel for the CLC V. Raghunath, moved a lunch motion in the HC which was heard by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhtar.

After hearing the arguments of the petitioners counsel and Additional Advocate General J. Ramachandra Rao on behalf of the State government, the Bench directed the government to preserve the body of the person and instructed the body to be shifted to Gandhi Hospital here by Friday.

Three experts

The Bench also passed a direction asking the Gandhi Hospital superintendent to form a board of three senior doctors to carry out the autopsy on the body again and present the report to the court by Monday covering all the parameters and norms to ascertain the precise reasons behind the death. On completion of the autopsy, the body should be handed over to Linganna’s family members, the Bench said.

Earlier, Mr. Raghunath argued that Linganna was not a Naxalite but one fighting for the rights of the tribals. He alleged that Linganna was picked up by the police on July 31 and shot dead after subjecting him to torture. An autopsy on his body was conducted at the Bhadradri-Kothagudem Hospital without forensic experts.

The body was not preserved properly as no freezers were available in the hospital, he added. Mr. Ramchandra Rao told the court that Linganna belonged to CPI-ML (New Democracy) group of Naxalites, a banned organisation which “is waging a war against the State” and also “working against the interests of the State government”.

He maintained the police acted in compliance with the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.

The Bench observed though the person was accused of waging a war against the State, the procedures laid down by the law had to be followed. It was imperative to know the nature of injuries sustained by the person and the other reasons that resulted in his death.