Identified as Balachandran (29) and Sekar (54), the men told the NHRC that they were travelling in the same bus from which their co-travelers were allegedly abducted by 'well-built' men.
Two people, who claim to be part of a group of labourers of which 20 were killed in alleged police firing in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh on April 7, revealed chilling details of their escape. They recorded their statements in front of the National Human Rights Commission on Monday. Following their statement, NHRC issued a suo-moto notice to Andhra Pradesh government on the alleged police action.
Identified as Balachandran (29) and Sekar (54), the men told the NHRC that they were travelling in the same bus from which their co-travelers were allegedly abducted by 'well-built' men.
Balachandran, whose father was killed in the police firing has said that he survived because he along with some of the co-travelers left the vehicle to go to a near-by liquor shop. When he came back, none of the labourers with whom he was traveling were to be found on the bus.
Balachandran was going to the city along with his relatives and father to find work. He was approached by an agent named Palani. Palani was among the one who had disappeared from the bus and when Balachandran had called Palani, he said 'go back as police is arresting everyone', said Balachandran
Scared by what Palani said, he called his relative Shiv Kumar to know his whereabouts only to hear a stranger's voice on the other end who told him "Your men are here. So come to Tirupati immediately."
"The three men survived the killings due to sheer luck or their corpses would have been among those lying in the Seshachalam forest," said Henri Tiphagne of the Peoples' Watch, who had accompanied the 'survivors' to a press conference after they had recorded their statements at the NHRC office.
Another witness, Sekar, who is a daily wage worker from Pudur Kollamedu village in Tiruvannamalai told NHRC that he was supposed to go to Chennai after his neighbour Mahendran had informed him about a construction job opportunity there. In the bus, Sekar was seated between an unidentified woman and Mahendran, when a man entered the bus then asked Mahendran's identity and forced him out of the bus. "Perhaps the only reason Sekar was not taken was they might have thought that the woman was his(Sekar) wife," said Tiphagne.
Tiphagne added that there is also a third witness, who could not come to record his statement to Delhi, on Monday. Identified as Illangovan from Malakanavayoor village, the witness, according to Peoples Watch, jumped out of the open lorry 'which was taking him and some other men to their certain death'.
"This is a clear case of staged encounter and there are many witnesses to it who are not coming out of in the open due to the fear of getting killed," he further said.
Accompanying Tiphagne was Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover, who said that the prime facie evidence suggest involvement of the top brass. "There is a culture of acceptance of so called encounters and our country's politicians, police force and bureaucrats champion this idea. This is the reason why such brazen and arbitrary killings to have taken place," she said.
"A team comprising of retired justice Suresh Hosbet, Satyabrata Pal, former member-NHRC, and EN Rammohan ex-DGP, BSF will meet the concerned officials of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. They will also visit the scene of incident, meet the villages of the deceased and the survivors. The interim findings will be presented on April 15 in Vellore and the final report will be submitted to the NHRC during its hearing on 23 April in Hyderabad," she concluded.
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