SIT reports Seshachalam victims knew to use guns

Hyderabad: The Special Investigation Team which probed the encounter killing of 20 woodcutters in the Seshachalam forest in April this year has in its final report charged that the deceased were familiar with using smooth bore breach loading (SBBL) and single barrel muzzle loading (SMBL) rifles. The SIT in its final report filed before the 4th additional junior first class magistrate court at Tirupati denied the allegations of the kith and kin of the deceased and civil rights activists that the rifles recovered at the encounter site did not belong to the deceased and were planted by the police.

The SIT stated that most of the deceased were from Tiruvannamalai district and belonged to the Malayali Scheduled Tribe community. It found that the collector and superintendent of police of Chittoor district had noticed in 2011 that the tribe was involved in red sanders smuggling and had procured SBBL guns. They appealed them to surrender the rifles, and as many as 576 weapons were deposited at various police stations.

When both the officials made similar appeals in 2012, the tribe deposited 321 rifles. Later, a large number of rifles were recovered from various remote places in the district. The SIT concluded that the Special Task Force personnel opened fire on woodcutters hired by red sanders smugglers after they attacked them with sickles, axes and stones besides firing on the police with SBBL rifles.

Mr N. Chandrasekhar, head of the SIT, said that most of the family members of the deceased in their statements given during investigation claimed that the victims were poor labourers belonging to the most disadvantaged sections of the society and had visited the Seshachalam forest for the first time, earning Rs 200 to Rs 300 per day. He said the police collected the call records of cell phones belonging to the deceased which were found at the encounter site and it showed that they had visited the place 15 to 20 times.

He said, “our investigation reveals that the red sander smugglers were paying each wood cutter Rs 500 per kg and each woodcutter used to fell red sander logs weighing about to 20 to 30 kg each day, earning between Rs 10,000 to 15,000 daily." He said that no evidence was found to support the allegation that the wood cutters were apprehended elsewhere and killed in Seshachalam after being subjected to torture.