Seshachalam Tragedy: A Decade of Silence and Desperate Call for Justice
Vanaja Jasphine and Edgar Kaiser
On April 7, 2015, the Seshachalam forest in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, became the backdrop for one of the darkest chapters in India’s fight for human rights.
People’s Watch urged the State Human Rights Commission to probe the recent killing of a chain snatcher
by Chennai police and demanded that the police onnel involved be immediately suspended.
When the State praises ‘encounter specialists’ like S Velladurai IPS for their extra-constitutional acts, and spares ‘torture specialists’ like Balvir Singh IPS, police accountability goes for a toss.
Police have gunned down Subash Chandra Bose, a history sheeter, allegedly in an act of self-defence.
Days after the alleged “encounter” of a chain snatcher in Chennai, a history sheeter has been shot dead by police in Madurai. Extrajudicial killings are often described as “encounters” by police. The deceased, identified as Subash Chandra Bose, was killed on the night of March 31. Police have again claimed it an act of self-defence.
