The Kerala Government has ordered a Crime Branch (CB) enquiry into the death of suspected Maoist, C. P. Jaleel (26), in a purported shootout with police commandos near a forest resort at Lakkidi in Wayanad on late Wednesday.
Officials said the police investigation would run parallel to the magisterial enquiry that was already underway as per the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for encounter deaths.
Meanwhile, an inquest by the police concluded that Jaleel had died from gunshot wounds to his head, back and thigh.
The police said they found his body lying face down near a pond a little away from the resort. The bullets had hit him from behind, and the shot to his head had proven fatal almost instantaneously.
Officials said they had recovered the body only on Thursday and after a careful examination by the police bomb squad to detect booby traps, if any. A a country-made breach loading handheld shotgun and eight shells were also recovered near the body.
The police later transported the body to Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, where forensic doctors conducted an autopsy in the presence of the Revenue Divisional Officer.
The RDO has video recorded the procedure. Officials said Jaleel's body would be handed over to his relatives and the police would escort it to his family house at Pandikadu in Malappuram.
Meanwhile, C.P. Rasheed, Jaleel's brother and human right activist, disputed the police version that they had fired upon on the alleged Maoist’s in retaliation.
He told journalists in Kozhikode that the “Thunderbolt Commandos” had shot his brother dead in cold blood and demanded a magisterial enquiry into the “murky” episode.
The police had claimed on Thursday that retaliatory fire from Thunderbolt Commandos, had felled Jaleel as he and his fellow "left-wing extremists" attempted to withdraw into the dense forests bordering the resort.
They said the Maoists had arrived at the resort on Wednesday night to demand cash, provisions and food for ten persons.
Officers privy to the operation claimed that only Jaleel and another "Maoist" had entered the resort while the other members, some of them armed with automatic assault rifles, possibly AK 47s, had maintained a stake-out in the vicinity to counter any police intrusion.
They said the firefight broke out first between the commandos and the armed scouts when the police arrived following a tip-off.
Jaleel and his compatriot fled the resort on hearing the sounds of the gun battle, and he was killed in the engagement that soon spread to the nearby forests and continued well into early Thursday.
Meanwhile, investigators said that Jaleel's family was known for their long association with social causes and also organisations suspected to be fronts for the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist).
They said Rasheed had for sometime headed Porattam, a group alleged to be closed to radical left-wing outfits and had espoused environmental causes and issues of tribals.
The police alleged that Jaleel's brother, C. P. Moideen, headed the Kabani Dalam of the CPI (Maoist) and was a fugitive from the law.
A third brother, C. P. Ismael, was in prison in Maharashtra after the State's Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested him along with another alleged Maoist, Murali Kannanmpally, in 2016.
Meanwhile, the Vythiri police have registered a case against ten CPM (Maoist) activists, several of them yet to be identified, on the charges of armed trespass, extortion, illegal use of firearms and attempting to murder law enforcers.
IG, Kannur Range, Balaram Kumar Upadhyaya told The Hindu that anti-Maoist operations were in full swing in Wayanad forests to flush out remnants, if any, of the armed group.
He said the police had a clear idea of the inventory of arms in possession of the Maoists and they included assault rifles and possibly landmines. SP, Operations, Debesh Kumar Behera, and District Police Chief, Wayanad, R. Karuppuswamy were supervising the operations.