Kerala HC Asks Govt To Preserve Bodies Of Slain Maoists Until Further Orders

The High Court of Kerala on Tuesday asked the Kerala Government to preserve the bodies of two Maoists who were killed in a police encounter in Agali forests last week.

Justice Narayana Pisharadi passed the interim direction in an original petition filed by the kin of Karti and Manivasagam challenging the permission granted by Sessions Court Palakkad to cremate the bodies of slain Maoists.

The brother and sister of Karti and Manivasagam respetively had approached the Sessions Court contending that the police has failed to follow the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the PUCL judgment regarding the follow-up probe of encounter killings.

The Session Judge found that there were no lapses on the part of police. The petitioners challenged this finding stating that the Sessions Judge had not even examined the postmortem reports before passing the order.

Justice Pisharadi prima facie agreed with the contention of the petitioners that without looking into the postmortem reports, it cannot be found whether the conclusions reached by the Sessions Judge are correct or not. According to the petitioners, cremation of bodies now will permanently foreclose the options of a second postmortem, if found necessary later.

"I am of the view that it is necessary to give a direction to the State to preserve the dead bodies till further orders are passed by the Court in the matter, after hearing the present petition in detail", expressed the judge.

The State was directed to take all necessary steps possible to see that the dead bodies are kept intact, avoiding decomposition to the extent possible. The matter will be heard next on November 8.

The Apex Court had, in PUCL v. State of Maharashtra, in 2014, issued 16 guidelines to be followed in the matters of investigating cases of death and grievous injuries in police encounters. The Court said that these guidelines will operate as the standard procedure for thorough, effective and independent investigation. The guidelines include mandatory magisterial inquiry into encounter deaths and providing information to the close relatives of the victims without any delay.

The top court stated that the the family of the victims of encounter killings can file a complaint to the Sessions Judge having territorial jurisdiction over the area, if they feel that the police has failed to follow the procedure laid down by the apex court.

The Court also prohibited granting out-of-turn promotion or instant gallantry rewards on the concerned officers soon after the occurrence.