High court seeks report from Andhra on deaths

The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to submit a report in two days on the killing of 20 woodcutters by police in an alleged gun battle.

The court asked the government and the Director General of Police to submit the report, giving details of Tuesday's incident in Chittoor and also whether it followed the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for the states to follow in case of such encounters.

The high court, which is serving both the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, gave the direction on a petition filed by a human rights activist, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into what he said was a fake encounter.

Raghunath, the counsel for the petitioner, said the court asked the government to give details of the people who were killed.

The petitioner alleged that the labourers were murdered by the police in cold blood. He said the police fired to kill the innocent labourers. He pointed out that the police fired at their vital parts.