Nilambur: Slain Maoist leader Kuppuswamy Devaraj's brother has alleged that police had carried out a fake encounter in the Karulayi forests, causing two deaths.
The man said that Devaraj worked for the society and that he came to know of the encounter via media reports. Kuppuswamy's mother too said that she was not aware of her son's political orientation.
"He was a good person. I don't know whether he was killed by the police," she said.
Unanswered questions have shrouded in mystery the claims of the police that the commandos shot down two armed guerrillas inside the forest on Thursday noon. Contrary to claims by the police, the rebels might have been killed by the police commandos who rounded off their hideout in the jungle.
Maoists fired first: police
Meanwhile, the police have said the Maoist group consisted of 11 people and it was the extremist group that started firing. The police had identified the two Maoists killed in the encounter as Kuppuswamy Devaraj, a central committee member of the outlawed outfit, and Ajitha.
“Senior Maoist leader Vikram Gauda was also in the group," Malappuram police chief Debesh Kumar Behera said.
AIYF protest LDF govt's move
CPI's youth organization AIYF took out a march to the collectorate to protest the police action in Karulayi forest that led to the deaths of the Maoists.
"Kerala is not ruled by fascists, but by the LDF that was brought up on Leftist ideology," district secretary P.D. Sharafuddin said.
“We are not trying to protect Maoists, but the right to live,” he added.