The CBI has booked a case of murder and criminal conspiracy against an Andhra Pradesh police party for killing Azad, alias Cherukuri Raj Kumar, a top Maoist, and freelance journalist Hemachandra Pandey in an “encounter” on July 1, 2010, in the forests of Adilabad.
The investigation will be crucial in the wake of claims by civil and human rights groups that the police is resorting to extra judicial killings. The state police had earlier faced the heat in another “encounter” killing, that of Sohrabuddin.
CBI joint director V.V. Lakshmi Narayana said, “Based on the allegations of a false encounter made in the writ petitions filed by Swami Agnivesh and Bineetha Pandey, the Supreme Court has issued directions, based on which we registered the case on May 19.” The CBI team will be leaving for Adilabad on Sunday.