Court seeks report on Sompeta firing from government

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, July 16: The AP High Court on Friday asked the state government to submit a status report and steps being taken to maintain law and order in Sompeta village where two persons killed in police firing on July 14.

A division bench comprising Justice A. Gopal Reddy and Justice K.C. Bhanuwas was dealing with a petition filed by Mr V.V. Krishna Rao, former president of Samata Party, seeking a direction for a CBI probe into the police firing.

The petitioner contended that why so many police personnel were deployed and how the situation was handled and at whose instance all these happened can be revealed only through a CBI probe.

Mr Sridhar Reddy, special government counsel, argued that the writ was premature as the incident took place on July 14 and the petitioner submitted a representation to the government seeking the CBI probe on July 15 and approached the court on July 16.

The bench asked the government counsel to submit the report on July 21.