Cauvery Basin2

Tamil Research Institution (TRI)
Fortunately, two days earlier, the preliminary fact finding team of People’s Watch had visited
the spot, before the police realised the implications of letting them go there, and had
prepared a report, which the team had access to and studied and accepts as factual and
objective. (Refer to Annexure 2). At 3 PM, the fact finding team started for S.V Medical
College in Tirupati.
The fact finding team reached S.V Medical College, Tirupati, at 3:30 PM where the postmortem
of 20 bodies of persons killed in alleged encounter was conducted. There were
neither doctors nor any administrative staff to share with the fact finding team the records in
which the details of the post mortem were registered. However, the team was also able to
speak to the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, who informed it that nine constables of
the Task Force had been brought there around 11:30 in the morning of 7 th April, most of
them with simple injuries caused by blunt objects, which could have been stones or sticks. It
has to be noted that the alleged injured policemen arrived for treatment at the hospital before
the first FIR that was registered half an hour later at 12:00 noon on the same date and this
was also conceded by the State of AP before the NHRC in its hearing in Hyderabad on 23 rd
April 2015. None of them had injuries that could have been caused by firearms, arrows or
sharp objects like sickles. However, the Medical Superintendent refused to show any
documents in support of the above facts.
The fact finding team was however able to gather from reliable sources that the 20 bodies of
those killed were brought to the hospital mortuary only after 8:30 PM on 7 th April, which
clearly shows that the bodies were in the open forest for a whole day in the sun with the
intention to allow the bodies to decompose in natural ways. Though the incident happened
inside the forest, as claimed by APRS-STF, there were no medical personnel after the
incident to declare the death of the 20 people. Even if the APRS-STF claims the injuries to
be that of gunshots, there exist adequate chances for the injured to survive. That chance has
been intentionally and wilfully denied, which establishes clear the intentions of the STF to kill
the wood cutter.
These sources also confirmed that there were several MRO (Mondal Revenue Officers)
deployed to conduct the inquests. If so, not much time period is needed to finish the inquest
by the MROs and bodies could have been brought to the hospital in the early hours of 7 th
April itself, to avoid decomposition and secure vital proof from the body. The fact finding
team has been alerted that the post-mortems were conducted by a team of doctors from the
SV Medical College and also followed NHRC guidelines. There are only four qualified
forensic experts in the concerned hospital. We strongly feel that detailed autopsy is not
possible within 4 hours for 20 bodies (i.e. between 9 AM – 1 PM on 8 th April) as the bodies
reached the respective villages on the evening of 8 th April as confirmed later by the
respective families of the deceased and villagers.
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