Page 57 - Veritas

CASE STUDIES

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION Vs.

HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION

Ms. Arsha Sahadevan

On the sixth of March, 2019,

the Thunderbolt force of
Kerala Police gunned down

40-year-old C.P. Jaleel, a sus-
pected Maoist leader, in an en-

counter, in the Lakkidi rainfor-
est of Wayanad district, Kerala.

Jaleel was a native of the Mal-
appuram district in Kerala. Ac-

cording to police statements, a
group of five to eight Maoists,

including Jaleel, broke into the Upavan resort (a private resort in Wayanad)
at around 8:30 PM, intending to extort food and money. The police reached

the site upon receiving information from the resort staff. It was then that
the Maoist group began firing indiscriminately across the commandos,

which resulted in a series of counter firing, in which Jaleel was shot dead.

The IGP (Inspector-General of Police), Balram Kumar Upadhyay, furnished
the following details to the media:

1. None of the personnel involved in the encounter was injured.
2. Another person in the armed gang of Maoists was injured, evident from

the trail of blood picked up.
3. The crime scene was cordoned off, and combing operations were under-

way.
4. Jaleel was an active member of the ultra-group for the past five to six

years, having cases registered against him in 2014 and 2016.

However, what the resort manager and another employee had was a differ-
ent tale. As per their witness statements, Jaleel and another headed into

the reception and urged them for food and money. The resort manager also

42 VERITAS