Kintukuru ‘encounter’ killings of Maoists: HRF submission to Magisterial Inquiry
It is the HRF’s considered view that the instant case must be registered as two crimes, that is under Section 109 and Section 103 of the BNS respectively in the Rampachodavaram police station under which jurisdiction the crime has been committed. The first is a crime of Attempt to Murder by the now deceased and the other a crime of Culpable Homicide Amounting to Murder by the police purportedly in self-defence. Therefore, the concerned police personnel have to be put on trial. The burden of establishing a preponderance of probabilities in favour of the exception relating to self-defence to a competent court rests upon the police personnel who have fired causing death. Importantly, the case must be investigated by an agency completely independent of the State police.