Hyderabad: In an acute embarrassment to the Andhra Pradesh government the National Human Rights Commission has ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the sensational Seshachalam incident of April 7 in which 20 people from Tamil Nadu were shot dead.

NHRC member Justice Murugesan has also asked the state government to pay a compensation of Rs1 million (Dh57,598) to the family of each deceased of the incident. The special compensation should be paid under section 164 of the SC, ST Act, he said. The commission has also ordered the Tamil Nadu government to provide special protection to the witnesses of the incident.

While the AP government claimed that those killed were Red Sanders smugglers who had attacked the forest guards and the policemen and they were killed in firing in self defence, the families of the deceased alleged that the police arrested and shot them dead in a fake encounter.

20 people from Tamil Nadu were killed at two different places in Seshachalam forest of Chittoor district on April 7.

The NHRC passing the orders for CBI probe gave four weeks time to AP government to complete the formalities and handover the case to the Central agency. Three different FIRs were registered at the Chandragiri police station. The NHRC said that all these cases should be handed over to CBI.

Earlier the NHRC had held its camp sitting in Hyderabad in third week of April and heard the representations from the human rights organisations against the AP government and the police. Later a team of NHRC officials also visited the two spots of killings deep in the forest and also met the families of the deceased in Tamil Nadu before submitting its report to the commission.

“There are good grounds to think that there was serious violation of human rights of the 20 persons who were killed by the special Task Force personnel”, the commission said in its orders.

As NHRC’s recommendations were not binding on the state government it remains to be seen whether the Chandrababu Naidu regime will accept it and request the Center for the CBI inquiry.

Or it can also take the line of argument that the Andhra Pradesh High Court was already supervising the investigation by a Special Investigation Team of the state police.

The NHRC order can also become a precedent in another encounter case in which five under-trials, including a suspected terrorist Viqar Ahmad, were killed by the Telangana police on the same day of April 7 while they were being brought from Warangal jail to a court in Hyderabad.

While police claimed the under-trials had tried to snatch a weapon and escape from police vehicle, their families and the human rights organisations brought it to the notice of the High Court and NHRC that all the five were handcuffed and chained to their seats in the police van when they were shot dead form close range. Describing it a “revenge killing”, they are demanding a CBI inquiry in to the incident.