Volume 1, No. 1, March 2000

About thirty thousand people, who gathered at the Nizam College Grounds in Hyderabad on February 14, 2000 condemned the reign of fake encounters being unleashed by the State and the police and demanded that a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge be ordered into the Bangalore-Koyyur encounter in which three CPI (M-L) [People’s War] Central Committee members — Adi Reddy alias Shyam, Yerramreddy Santhosh Reddy alias Mahesh and Seelam Naresh alias Murali — and another Comrade Lakshmi Rajam were brutally murdered by the police. Responding to the call given by the ‘United Struggle Committee Against Fake Encounters’, people from various parts of the country descended on Hyderabad to lend their voice to those who rallied behind the committee, defying police diktats. Thousands gave chorus to Gaddar and his fellow comrades when they sang revolutionary songs eulogising the martyrs who sacrificied their lives in the fight against the State. As many as 46 people’s organisations joined hands and set up the committee to wage a fight against fake enconters and demand a judicial inquiry into the Bangalore-Koyyur encounter. Several speakers who addressed the mammoth gathering said revolutionary organisations and other progressive associations all over the country are joining hands to protest against the killings of M-L leaders, who championed people’s causes, in fake encounters.They said the government would have to pay a heavy price for killing the top PW leaders. They said there is an immediate need to chalk out a national-level agitational programme to expose the oppressive policies of the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh. Coming down heavily on the State govermnent and the police, the PUCL leader KG Kannabiran said that it has become routine for governments to kill people disregarding the basic tenets of rule of law. "We have been infoming the National Human Rights Commission about fake encounters, providing adequate evidence disproving the police versions. But the reign of fake encounters continues despite our efforts to check police excesses," he said. He wanted the NHRC to visit Andhra Pradesh and probe all the encounter deaths in the State. "Chandrababu Naidu should give an undertaking to the NHRC that there will be no more encounter deaths in the State," he demanded.

Addressing the gathering, former Bombay High Court judge, SM Daud, said that the judiciary should come to the rescue of the people as the other two pillars of democracy — the executive and the legislature — have failed in keeping to their spirit. Justice Daud appealed to courts not to take seriously the arguments put forth by governments as they were deliberately misleading the judiciary. Judges should deliver judgements conforming to the constitutional spirit and they should not be influenced by ‘suggestions’ by governments, Justice Daud said. "Is it possible to aproach courts for getting permissions for holding street-corner meetings?" he questioned, referring to the court permission to hold the meeting. Eminent Kannada literary critic, Prof (retd) K.Govinda Rao, said beautification of the city can be achieved not by constructing flyovers and skyscrapers but by keeping the people happy. People’s Democratic Forum (Karnataka) leader, PG Venkatesh, submitted the findings of his committee which probed into the killings of the top People’s War leaders. APCLC leader Ratnamala, BC Welfare Association president R.Krishnaiah, Challapalli Srinivasa Rao(Janashakti), former legislator NV Krishnaiah, Chandrakanth Taraguru (Nepal), Ashok Debroy (West Bengal), Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty, noted lawyers Sebastian and Bojja Tarakam and others spoke. Legislator Gummadi Narasaiah and Varavara Rao participated in the meeting. The meeting adopted resolutions demanding a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge, booking murder cases against all police officials involved in fake encounters and the lifting of the ban on People’s War and some other people’s organisations. The committee succeeded in making the public meeting a huge success fighting against all odds. The State, hand in glove with the police, was determined to stop the committee from organsing the meeting. First, it made everybody believe that everything was smooth by giving permission to the public meeting and rally as was requested by the organisers. At the last moment, the police commissioner cancelled the permission, by saying that the huge gathering of ‘PWG sympathisers’ may cause a law and order poblem. But the organisers were able to obtain permission from the High Court. The court, acting on a House motion, late on the night of February 12, gave the go-ahead for the committee to hold the meeting but not the rally, which, it thought, would obstruct the traffic. The court had directed the State police authorities not to create hurdles to the public who wanted to attend the public meeting. The court orders, however, fell on deaf ears and the police obstructed the people at various points in the State and on the city borders. They detained several thousand people at various places in the State. They brow-beat the operators of lorries, trucks, jeeps and tractors and warned them against hiring their vehicles to the people who were planning to attend the Hyderabad meeting. Thousands of people, bound for Hyderabad in trains and buses, were stopped on the way . The State machinery cancelled bus services from the interior parts of the state, particularly from the Telangana districts, to the State capital, thinking that this would prevent people from attending the meeting. All these efforts of the State proved futile. Defying all these barricades, waves of crowds reached the city expressing their solidarity with those who are fighting against fake encounters and those fighting for the people’s cause.

People Defy Police Raj

The Andhra Pradesh police are totally at a loss as to what to do to cap the outburst of public anger following the brutal murder of Shyam, Mahesh and Murali. The reaction has been spontaneous and very effective, pushing the State machinery to their knees. Hundreds of protest rallies and meetings are being held throughout the State, condemning the killings. The police know full well that the people would not buy their version. They and the bourgeois press could not make the people believe that their leaders were kil1ed in a real encounter. The killings of their beloved leaders enraged the people, who expressed their protests in myriad forms, ranging from blasting government properties to organising rallies and public meetings. The police could not stand this, and devised a plan to cap their anger. They made it a policy not to grant permission to hold rallies and public meetings. They resorted to arrests whenever leaders of mass organisations led protest rallies. They arrested leaders like Varavara Rao, Gaddar, Vimala and Challapalli Srinivasa Rao at various places in the State for ‘defying’ orders and booked cases on them. This was a ploy by the police to discourage the leaders from attending the meetings. This, they thought, would dampen the spirits of the people and the leaders. When leaders of various Leftist organisations staged a dharna in front of the State secretariat, a police patrol party took them into custody and lodged them at the Chanchalguda jail. This, they thought, would keep the movement against fake encounters leader-less. To their utter dismay, the jail, itself, which houses a 1arge number of political priosoners including PW’s AP State Committee member Appa Rao, turned into a revolutionary camp. The four walls of the jail reverberated with songs by Gaddar and impromptu ‘public meetings’, leaving the jail authorities in jitters. Though the court had granted the leaders conditional bail, the inmates were not keen that they leave the jail. The tantrums of the police and the government to stop people from holding protest rallies and meetings did not work as the people sprang a surprise or two on the government machinery. Gaddar appeared from thin air at the Bar Council hall in Guntur a day after the police had wreaked havoc by arresting several leaders and their kin to prevent them from conducting a public meeting. The district police officials, who made Guntur a virtual police camp, were caught unawares when Varavara Rao attended the AIPRF meeting in the town. They stood next to ticket collectors at the railway station to arrest him and other leaders who would get down at the station. Local activists of various people’s organisations led their leaders out of the station and helped them reach the venue. The police, in a bid to prevent a public meeting from being held, employed the same tactic at Dachepalli in Guntur district. They took into custody all the leaders who reached the town to address the meeting and produced them in court. Hundreds of people staged a dharna and rasta roko halting the traffic for about four hours. Almost all members of the local bar association filed bail petitions, seeking the release of the leaders. The moment the court granted bail to their leaders, the agitators organised a public meeting, defeating the schemes of the state machinery yet again.

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