Bilaspur: The Chhattisgarh High Court on Thursday asked the state government to exhume the bodies of eight tribals killed in a police encounter and conduct post postmortem on them afresh in the presence of a team of experts.
The police had killed 19 people claiming them to be Naxalites in an encounter on January 8 this year in Singawaram in Dantewada district.
The family members of those killed filed a petition with High Court on January 19 claiming the encounter as fake and demanded a CBI enquiry into the matter, action against the culprits and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased.
Single bench of Justice Satish Agnihotri while hearing the petition today asked Chhattisgarh government to exhume the bodies of eight tribals and conduct post-mortem on them in presence of experts on February 1.
Earlier, on January 22, the court had issued notices to the state home secretary, DGP, Dantewada SP and the police personnel involved in the encounter asking them to furnish their reply by next hearing on January 29.
However, the state government sought 10 more days today to furnish its reply.
Out of 19 tribals killed, the bodies of eight were buried and the rest were burnt as per varying rituals among tribes.
The encounter had also invited flack from residents of Singawaram, NGOs and political parties who claimed that innocents were killed in the name of encounter.
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