Chennai: The two FIRs filed by forest officials on the “encounter” near Tirupati on April 7 claim that the 20 alleged “smugglers” killed by Andhra Police and forest guards were chopping and carrying logs of red sanders in the Seshachalam forest the previous night. However, phone records of at least four of the victims, examined by The Indian Express, blow holes in the official version.
A close scrutiny of the Call Detail Record (CDR) reveals that two of them were travelling for most of that night, and arrived at the encounter spot — Chandragiri Mandal near Rangampet village — only at around 2.30 am on April 7, barely three hours before the “encounter”.
The records also show that a third victim had reached the Tamil Nadu-Andhra border, over 100 km from the encounter site, at around 5.30 pm on April 6, while the cellphone of the fourth remained active till at least 7.55 pm on April 10. All four were shot dead on April 7, between 5.30 am and 6 am, by a group of forest guards and members of a police task force formed to prevent smuggling of red sanders, according to the FIRs.
The call records, however, support the version of the three witnesses in the case who told National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that they were picked up by members of the task force and forest guards in plain clothes, the previous day. The CDRs were of the same cellphone numbers that police used to identify the victims – of the 20 killed, 11 had registered cellphone numbers, according to investigators.
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The CDRs of a majority of the victims show their phones were switched off or not available April 6 evening onward, almost the same time as they were picked up, as per the witnesses. The Indian Express examined the CDRs of Perumal (37), from Vettagiripalayam village, Palani (35) from Kalasamuthiram village, Magendran (25) from Gandhi Nagar village, and Munusamy (35) of Padaveedu village.
Perumal
Witnesses have testified that Perumal and Palani had arranged for the woodcutters to be taken to Seshachalam.
The CDRs show their phones were active even during the intervening night, even as the numbers of the others showed zero activity.
April 6, 11.14 am: CDR places him at his native village Padaveedu in Tiruvannamalai district. Around 10 from the village leave with him for Andhra some time
later.
2.37 pm: Perumal is at Anna Salai near Arcot in Vellore district (Tamil Nadu). For the next five hours, his phone is switched off.
7.44 pm: Perumal receives a 31-second call from Anbalagan, a tailor from his village. At the time, Perumal is at Vadamalapet, near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Anbalagan said he had called to inform Perumal that the shirt he had given for stitching was ready. “Somebody else picked up. I tried to ask about Perumal but I was not able to understand anything and cut the call,” he said.
7.44 pm to 9.22 pm: Perumal’s location varies from Vadamalapet to Renigunta Mandal, 10 km away, to a check post near Puttur road and back again to Nandavaram village near Tirupati.
9.22 pm: Perumal’s phone goes dead again.
April 7, 2.33 am: An SMS goes out to Arumugam, a relative and neighbour of Perumal. The nearest cellphone tower to the encounter site, which is about 25 km from Nandavaram, picks up the signal. Arumugam said he was surprised because “Perumal is not a person who sends SMSes”. He said he would read out the message but then added, “Sorry, I deleted it by mistake.”
15 seconds later: A message is received by Venkatesh, one of Perumal’s neighbours.
2.35 am, 2.36 am: Venkatesh places two calls to Perumal. Perumal’s location at the time is Chandragiri Mandal — identified as the encounter site in one FIR. The calls last 28 and 42 seconds respectively. A source close to Venkatesh said he was supposed to join Perumal and the others for the trip to Andhra. “While the others left on April 6 afternoon, Venkatesh started only at 6 pm from Kannamangalam, a town near Padaveedu,” he said.
The source added that the first call, at 2.35 am, got cut abruptly. The second time, Perumal reportedly picked up the phone and asked Venkatesh where he was. Venkatesh replied he was at Tiruttani, a town in Tamil Nadu near the Andhra border, 82 km from Chandragiri Mandal. Perumal, the source said, replied in a trembling voice: “I am inside a forest. Come to Tirupati and call me.”
Both times, the source claimed, Venkatesh could hear someone else at the other end telling Perumal what to say. An alarmed Venkatesh returned home – his was the last call received by Perumal before he was killed. Venkatesh’s number has been switched off for days now.
Inputs – IE
