Semmaram Encounter Killings Fact Finding Report2

Tamil Research Institution (TRI)
applied for a job in the police dept. Also, he was pursuing collegiate education through
correspondence. From time to time he worked for a company in Chennai too for the past five
years. Since he did not get adequate pay, he went to Pondicherry for painting work. After
that he had come home just 2 days before his death.
In these circumstances, due to lack of rain the well had gone dry and the motor too
was in a state of repair and we were unable to do agriculture. Therefore Mahendran was
saying that he would go back to work just after two days of returning from Chennai. I too did
not oppose.
So, on Monday 06.04.2015 at about 11.00 AM he seems to have gone from home.
None of us were at home at that time. He left all by himself. We too were unperturbed,
thinking that he must have gone back only to Chennai.
The next day, 07.04.2015, at about 6.00 AM, my maternal uncle Sekar came home
and said that our men had been caught by the Police at a place called Nagari which is on the
way to Tirupati and that Mahendran too had been caught. We were distraught and did not
know what to do, because of fear. I thought that they would send back my son after enquiry
and waited for his return.
After that at about 7.00 PM that evening, Kannamangalam Police came and showed
us a photograph of a dead body. I identified that body as my son’s and cried. The Police
then said that the Andhra Police had shot dead 20 persons who had gone to cut wood and
left after asking us to come to Kannamangalam Police Station.
Then my eldest son and Panchayat Members went to Kannamangalam Police
Station where they seem to have said that the persons going to receive the body should take
their Ration Card and Voter Identification Card along with the Ration Card and Voter
Identification Card of the deceased.
Accordingly on 08.04.2015 at about 5.00 AM my son Madhavan and 4 of our
relatives set out to the Andhra Govt. Hospital. They reached there at about 12.00 in the noon
and told the policemen who were there that they wanted to see Mahendran’s body but they
seem to have refused to let them see the body. Later they got the Identification Cards of my
son Madhavan and deceased Mahendran and then given the death certificate and FIR.
Later that night, at about 7.00 PM, my son’s body was tied like a bundle after the
postmortem and my eldest son Madhavan was taken and showed the face alone. Madhavan
later told me that the face looked black as if it was charred by fire. Then they brought the
body to our village by Tamil Nadu Ambulance in the early morning.
We said that we had suspicions in the death of my son and that we would not
perform the final rites until we got justice. At that time, people were protesting on the road
with the dead bodies of two persons from Vettagiri who were also shot dead by the Andhra
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