CRPF encounter: Officials admit ‘collateral damage’
In a candid admission days after the biggest CRPF encounter in Chhattisgarh left 19 persons dead, security officials on Tuesday admitted to the possibility of some extra “collateral damage’”. Among those killed is a 17-year-old girl and some boys who may be under 18 years of age who were used as “human shields” by Maoists, security officials said. As of now, the CRPF and state police have identified only seven deceased as “Maoists” who have a criminal records and various cases pending against them while the profile of others is still being examined by the security agencies. Government officials are not ruling out the possibility of the state government offering compensation to the families of those killed in the encounter who are subsequently proved to be innocent villagers.
At a time when the Union tribal affairs ministry has termed the CRPF offensive “completely unacceptable” and the Opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh has demanded a probe, top security officials said the state government may look at the option of handing over the investigation into the case to an independent agency in due course. “No decision has been taken yet. But the effort is to sort out the issue in the best possible manner,” a top official said.
The CRPF maintains that the force personnel used firing as a last resort when suspected Naxals open fired on them.
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Supplementary chargesheet against Jagan
Hyderabad, July 3: The CBI on Wednesday filed a supplementary charg-esheet in the alleged disproportionate assets case of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
It is a supplementary chargesheet for the first charge sheet which was filed against Jagan on March 31, according to CBI’s deputy legal adviser B. Ravindhra Nath. The investigating agency has so far filed three charge sheets in the case. In the first charge sheet, the CBI, which named Jagan and 12 individuals and firms Trident Life Sciences, Aurobindo Pharma and Hetero Drugs as accused, alle-ged that the YSR Cong-ress Party chief got investments of several crores from firms into his business as part of quid-pro-quo when his late father Y.S. Rajas-ekhara Reddy was the chief minister during 2004-09. Ravindra Nath said an additional `5.25 crores which came into Mr Jagan’s firms has been identified by the agency as bribe amount for the favours done to “some” persons. — PTI
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