Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today(September 26) directed that the dead body of Katha Ramchandra Reddy, who was killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh as an alleged Maoist commander, must be preserved in a mortuary till the Chhattisgarh High Court decides the writ petition filed by his son against the encounter.

The son, Raja Chandra, alleges that it was a fake encounter. He approached the Supreme Court, saying that the High Court had refused to grant an urgent hearing for his petition before the closure for Puja vacations.

The bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan disposed of the petition with the direction to preserve the body till the High Court decided the matter. The bench requested the High Court to prioritise the hearing. It clarified that the contentions are left open without any expression on the merits.

"We direct that till such time the High Court decides the writ petition or passes an appropriate order, the dead body of the petitioner's father may not be cremated/buried. Writ petition stands disposed of and we request to the High Court to hear the writ petition immediately it resumes after puja vacations. Since no affidavit has been called for, the allegations levelled in the writ petition are deemed not to have been admitted by this Court. All points kept open on merits," the bench observed.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, submitted that the body of the petitioner's father has not been cremated, as the petitioner wants the body to be preserved for a post-mortem investigation. The petitioner is seeking a CBI investigation into the encounter with officers outside Chhattisgarh.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the State of Chhattisgarh, submitted that a post-mortem was conducted under videography. He further said, "There were two persons who were killed in this firing. One family took the body, and they (the petitioner) are refusing to take the body. We agreed to give it to them...He was a commander and there is a bounty by seven States totalling about 2 crores on his head."

The encounter killing happened on September 22, when the petitioner's father and another person named Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy were killed in an encounter with Chhattisgarh police during anti-Maoist operations.

Case Details: RAJA CHANDRA Vs STATE OF CHHATTISGARH|W.P.(Crl.) No. 395/2025