The death of Karam Narasimha Rao, an Adivasi youth of Dosillapalli in Charla mandal, after being hit by a bullet during an anti-Maoist operation by the police on Saturday night set off protests in his native village in Bhadrachalam division on Monday.
Narasimha Rao succumbed to the grievous bullet injury while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad late on Sunday night.
Tension mounted in Dosillapalli on Monday afternoon when a group of villagers staged protest demanding action against those responsible for the death of Narasimha Rao, a petty trader of the village.
According to sources, the protesters shouted slogans dismissing the police version that the youth was injured after being caught in an exchange of fire between a police party and the rebels.
When the police officials came to the village to inquire into the incident, the agitated villagers sought an open inquiry in the village to unravel the facts and bring the guilty to book.
Meanwhile, the death of the Adivasi youth evoked widespread condemnation and vociferous demand for an impartial probe into the incident. In a statement, CPI (M) district secretary Pothineni Sudarshan Rao alleged that the police fired at Narasimha Rao and another youth suspecting them to be the ultras at Dosillapalli on Saturday night.
“The police action amounted to unwarranted and unrestrained firing on tribal youth,” he charged alleging that similar incidents occurred thrice in the same Bhadrachalam division in the last couple of years.
