C’garh cops cremates top Naxal leader, aide owing to lack of legal claimants

The Chhattisgarh Police on Monday said slain CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao Basavaraju and his comrade Naveen were cremated as per legal procedure with due orders from the executive magistrate in Narayanpur.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court had directed the Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh governments to hand over their bodies to their kin, but the police said there were no legal claimants.

Senior police officials said of the 27 Naxals who had been killed during the May 21 encounter in Abujhmad region of Bastar, 19 bodies had been handed over to their respective families after verification, however there was no legal claimants for the remaining seven bodies, including that of top ranked Naxal cadre and CPI Maoist general secretary Basavaraju.

Family members of another slain ultra Kosi Hungi had requested the police to cremate his body in Narayanpur itself. Therefore his was the eighth body that was cremated along with the seven Naxals, whose claimants were not there.

A senior official said all eight bodies were cremated in Narayanpur after following the legal procedure with orders from the executive magistrate on Monday.

Police officials informed The Tribune that certain individuals had filed two petitions with the Andhra Pradesh High Court with regard to claim over the bodies of Maoist cadres Basavaraju and Naveen.

Subsequently, in its order on May 24, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh had directed the petitioners to approach appropriate authority with regard to the claim for the deceased bodies.

“It is worth mentioning that Andhra Pradesh High Court had not issued order to the Chhattisgarh Police to hand over the bodies to the petitioners. It was only a direction issued to the petitioners to approach the concerned police authorities in Chhattisgarh,” a police official said.

In total, five groups of claimants (including that of two group of petitioners in Andhra Pradesh High Court) had reached Narayanpur on Monday, but couldn’t produce any valid and satisfactory documents to prove their relationship with the deceased cadres, the official said.

They also couldn’t provide any valid and legal document in support of their claim to take the bodies to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

No claimants approached for the two remaining bodies of Naxals.

So, in total, all eight bodies – two unclaimed bodies, kin of five lacked valid claims and one that of Kosi — were cremated in Narayanpur by the local authorities after following all due legal procedure on Monday, officials said, claiming that prima facie it appears that the acquaintances of Basavaraju and his associate Naveen refused to claim their bodies.

India