The Hindu : Farm labourer's killing makes tribals jittery

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 24, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Farm labourer's killing makes tribals jittery

By Our Staff Reporter

DEVARAKONDA (NALGONDA DT.), MARCH 23. The district police are embroiled in a controversy over the killing of a farm labourer.

It is alleged that police officers are failing to come out with a convincing explanation on the killing of Nomula Laxmaiah (40), who was shot dead on the outskirts of Polepally near here on last Saturday night.

He fell to a bullet that was shot while he was entering the village along with two others carrying a bundle of stolen mangoes.

Villagers alleged that a police party, combing the area for naxalites, mistook the trio to PW members and opened fire. The duo accompanying the slain villager, however, disputed the police officers' statement that he was caught in the crossfire between naxals and the police party.

Villagers also charged the police with concocting a "encounter story'' by placing PW banners, kit bags, tapancha and grenades at the spot.

While the Superintendent of Police (SP), Balasubramanyam, told The Hindu on Sunday that Laxmaiah had sustained a bullet injury when he entered the crossfire zone, the Devarakonda Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Buchhiram Reddy, informed local reporters that he fell to the bullets of naxalites.

A pall of gloom descended on the thandas following the killing of the farm labourer. Frightened by the incident, tribals of various thandas requested revenue officials to use their good offices to supply power in morning time.

"If they continue to give power in nights, one day we may also meet the same fate,'' a villager commented.

The district secretary of the Communist Party of India, Palla Venkat Reddy, who visited the spot, found fault with the police and demanded that Laxmaiah's family be paid ex gratia.

The havoc being created by action teams of the PW in Devarakonda sub-division as well as in Bhongir Assembly segment represented by the Minister for Mines and Geology, Uma Madhava Reddy, in the dissolved House is causing concern to the police.

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