Stories of the Dead

The next day, the police struggled with the crime records of the people they called "hardcore Naxals". Of the dead, three 'Naxals' were initially named—Madkam Suresh, Irpa Somulu and Korse Bichham. Four more names were included later. All except Madkam Suresh were residents of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta, the villages that fall under Basaguda thana, from where the team set off for the 'operation'.

Among those killed were two boys who studied and lived in a government hostel adjoining the thana. Many of the others who died that night routinely crossed the thana and several CRPF camps in between to visit the nearest town Awapalli. Even two days after the incident, the policemen in the Basaguda thana were clueless about the Naxal records of the dead.

Kottaguda village

1Saraswati. 12 years. The youngest victim. No Naxal record. Never went to school. Stayed at home or played in the fields. Her family does not have any belonging of hers left. Mother Kaka Sinakka searches for her photograph, fails. They cremated everything along with her body a few hundred metres away. Father Kaka Rama is a marginal farmer, grows mostly rice and tamarind.

2Kaka Samaiyya. 35-40 years. No Naxal record. Survived by four children and wife Kaka Negi. His sister Kaka Sarita, 20, is the first girl in many villages in the region to study beyond class XII and take admission in a professional course. She is studying for her BSc (Nursing) 220 km away, in Jagdalpur, and lives in a hostel. She returned home a day after the incident. She doesn't know when or how she will resume her studies.

3Kaka Nagesh alias Rahul. 15 years. A class X student of a government residential school in neighbouring Basaguda, "he was the brightest among us", says classmate Irpa Sandeep. Rahul, Sandeep and Madkam Ramvilas, another teenager who was killed in the encounter, visited Visakhapatnam on an education tour organised by the school in January. Awed by the sea and the ships in the coastal town, he instantly dreamt of becoming a mariner. He was good at mathematics and villagers say they had called him to the meeting that night to calculate the amount required per head for Beej Pundum, a village function. In his notebook were calculations he had made a month ago for the function.

... contd.

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