Mudigonda police firing: A well-designed Conspiracy
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday July 30 2007 12:02 IST
KHAMMAM: Saturday's Mudigonda police firing is slowly but surely turning out to be a well-designed conspiracy by some police officers.
Though it was not known whom they were targeting, locals say that it was Bandi Ramesh, a local CPM leader, spearheading the movement in the area.
Look at the sequence of events. The local SI makes a couple of rounds to the rastaroko place and asks the agitators to call off the stir.
At 11:30 am, the CI and SI, accompanied by some policemen come to the place again and take away agitating TDP and CPI leaders, who did not offer any resistance.
An hour later, the two officers come to the spot again and warn Bandi Ramesh of serious consequences. At exactly, 1:15 pm, they return to the place along with Additional SP.
Taking the agitators completely off guard, they drag Ramesh out of the dharna camp and beat him up mercilessly.
By the time, the agitators regroup, the CI whips out his revolver and a plainclothes constable opens fire from self loading rifle on the agitators.
It was then that the people rained stones on the police and rescued Ramesh. But, the firing continued and no one knows for sure who ordered the firing on the mob.
The plainclothes policemen were identified as 'special party personnel' who are under the direct control of Officer on Special Duty. It is not common for the officers to use them in such law and order situation as they are specifically trained in anti-Naxal operation. It was not clear under whose instructions Additional SP Ramesh Babu took the special party personnel with him.
This is not the first time that the Additional SP, who joined the force as SI and rose to this level with accelerated promotions, was involved in a similar situation. On January 29 this year, he ordered firing on CPM activists near Bhadrachalam.
One person lost his leg in the incident.
This website's newspaper managed to talk to one of the police personnel who were at the scene of the incident. The policeman, on strict condition of anonymity, said that the situation did not warrant firing. ''It was going on smoothly. They were not willing to call off the agitation till 4 p.m. Suddenly, the Additional SP descended on the spot and the scene changed. In a flash everything happened and the policemen were firing for about 15 minutes. They had spent about 80 bullets. Couple of them emptied AK-47 and SLR magazines (each magazine has 31 bullets). With bodies lying all around, we retreated slightly and by the time people regrouped, we left the place,'' he said.
On his part, Bandi Ramesh said the CI entered into an argument with him. ''I have nothing personal against the officer. But, he threatened to kill me and even attempted that. It was the activists who saved my life,'' Ramesh added.
Locals, who witnessed the incident said that the local MRO, who has the powers to order firing, was not present on the spot. Answers to all these questions may come up during the inquiry to be held by Additional DG Lokendra Sarma.
posted by Resistance 7/31/2007 09:56:00 PM,
