Cauvery Basin2

Tamil Research Institution (TRI)
contacted my elder brother Balachandran and told him that the Andhra Police had shot dead
our father and the others who had gone with him. We reached the Govt. Hospital in Lower
Tirupati at about 12.00 in the night. There, the District Collector of Tiruvallur District was
seated under a Shamiana erected near the post-mortem room.
First we went to the officials there and introduced ourselves. At that time they
showed the photographs that they had with them. When I looked at my father Harikrishnan’s
photo, I saw that there was blood near his neck. Also, there were burns near his jaw as if
acid had been poured there. His right eye had been gouged out. The portion of his right arm,
including the hand, below the elbow had been severed. There was blood on the back of his
neck too.
After that at about 1.00 PM we were permitted to see the bodies of my father and the
others from our village. When we looked at the bodies we found that post-mortem had
already been done. When we were about to touch the bodies, the policemen who were there
shouted that we should not touch the body since post-mortem had already been done. So,
none of us touched the bodies after that. Then they tore the plastic covering my father’s face
and showed it to me. The face appeared as if it had been charred. Blood was coming out of
the mouth too.
After that the policemen who were there asked for our signatures. We signed on the
papers that they gave us. A policeman also signed on the papers that we signed. There was
one paper each for every dead body. The policeman who signed for my father was stout,
dark and appeared to be aged about 45 years. He came to me and said in Telugu mixed
Tamil that he was the one who shot my father.
Ambulances from Tamil Nadu had come to Tirupati. The bodies of my father and
Lakshmanan were placed in the same Ambulance. Likewise each Ambulance carried two
bodies. We set out from there by Ambulance at about 1.00 AM. The officials and Tamil Nadu
police who had come with us to Tirupati followed our Ambulances in a Jeep.
The following day, 09.04.2015, at about 11.00 AM we brought the bodies to our
village. There, when we were about to perform the final rites for the deceased as per the
customs of our community, the policemen prevented us from doing anything and forced us to
cremate the bodies. We told them that as per our custom we bury the deceased and we
would not cremate the body. But the policemen threatened us and asked us to cremate the
body without any further delay. So we cremated our father’s body on our land at about 1.00
PM in the afternoon.
Seven of our families are suffering with the loss of our loved ones. As per my brother
Balachandran, the seven persons including my father were tortured and then killed.
Therefore case should be filed against the Andhra Police for murder because they subjected
these 7 families to this fate and departmental action should be taken also against the Tamil
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