Even as the killing of two Maoists T Shruti and Vidyasagar Reddy alias Sagar triggered off a controversy that it was a fake encounter, Telangana Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy asserted that they died in an exchange of fire with the police. Describing the encounter as unfortunate, he said, "Greyhounds went to the area on receipt of information about the presence of Maoists. First the Maoists opened fire forcing the police to return it", he said denying the allegations of fake encounter.
"We will ensure that there is no recurrence of such encounters in future", he said adding that there was no big resurgence of Maoists activities in Telangana.
Earlier the human rights activists and political leaders had alleged that the two Maoists were killed by the police in fake encounter. Vara Vara Rao, the famous Telugu poet and a leader of Revolutionary writers association also alleged that Shruti, a M.Tech student was sexually abused before she was killed in Warangal.
The parents of the two victims, who had gathered along with others at the MGM Hospital in Warangal to take the bodies alleged that the two were rounded up by the police and then shot dead.
E Dayakar Rao, the floor leader of opposition Telugu Desam in the state Assembly and also a leader from Warangal district demanded a judicial inquiry in to the incident suspecting that it was a case of fake encounter. A similar allegation was leveled by the Congress party leader T Jeevan Reddy.
But the state director general of police Anurag Sharma said that the firing took place after the Greyhounds came face to face with the Maoists and the other side fired upon the policemen.
Denying any resurgence in the activities of the Maoists he said that some youth had joined the movement for their own reasons.