Supreme Court notice to Centre, Andhra on Maoists leader Azad’s killing

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government over the alleged encounter in which Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey were killed.

Responding to a petition, the apex court directed the Government to give a satisfactory answer to the encounter deaths, saying it cannot allow such lawless killings to go on.

“In our republic we cannot allow the state to behave in such lawless manner and allow our children to be killed. We hope the state has some satisfactory answer to this petition,” a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha said while hearing a petition filed by social activist Swami Agnivesh and Pandey’s widow Babita.

It has sought replies from the two governments within six weeks.

Both were killed by the Andhra police last year in the Adilabad forests near Maharashtra-Andhra border. The manner in which, they were killed, has been questioned by human rights activists

Azad was a member of the central committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and carried a reward of 1.2 million rupees on his head.

Azad was linked to the Maoist movement for over 35 years and used to write articles for magazines on Maoist ideology. (ANI)