Hyderabad : The Andhra Pradesh High Court has asked the central government to reconsider its 2003 decision to award the president's gallantry award to three controversial police officers connected with the killing of three senior leaders of the Naxalite organisation People's War.
Disposing of a public interest petition filed by a senior High Court lawyer K.N. Rao, a division bench of the state high court, found fault with the union home ministry for giving gallantry awards to the officers without verification of the recommendation made by the state government.
The three officers — then state Intelligence Chief A. Shiv Shankar, then DIG, Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) Sriram Tiwari and then Superintendent of police Karimnagar district Nalin Prabhat — were in the eye of controversy ever since three top Maoist leaders were killed under mysterious circumstances in Koyyur forest of Karimnagar district on December 2, 1999.
While officials claimed that they were present during the encounter, other IPS (Indian Police Service) officers alleged that none of them was present during the incident.
The High Court bench comprising Justice G. Raghuram and G. V. Seetapathy made some hard hitting observations over the manner in which the home ministry dealt with the issue.
The court asked the central government to reconsider the whole issue, adding that the prestige and integrity of the award was in jeopardy.
The Centre's contention that it went by the recommendation of the state government was not accepted by the court.
The bench described it as an outsourcing of responsibility and said that it was the duty of the centre to protect the awards.
The bench also expressed its dismay over the manner in which the state government had recommended the names of the officers for the medals.
However, the court did not pass its judgment on the petitioner's plea that the awards should be cancelled, adding that it was not a proper forum to decide such matters.
The killing of the top three naxal leaders had led to a chain reaction. It ended when Maoists killed the then state home minister A. Madhav Reddy in a landmine blast in March 2000, in a revenge attack. They also tried to target the then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in October 2003 who escaped by a whisker.
