Probe will be ordered into Hemchander Pandey's death: HM

Hyderabad, Jul 5 : A probe would be ordered to establish whether Hemachander Pandey killed in an alleged encounter along with CPI(Maoist) spokesman Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was a journalist or a Maoist party member, Andhra Pradesh Home Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy said today.

The Home Minister gave the assurance to Babita, wife of Pandey, when she met her here. Babita alleged that her husband was a journalist and was bumped off by the Andhra Pradesh Police in a ''fake encouner.'' Babita said her husband, who was a freelance journalist, had gone to Nagpur on June 30, on an assignment where the police allegedly arrested him along with Azad and had murdered him after bringing him to Adilabad forest in Andhra Pradesh.

She demanded the Home Minister to probe into the killing of her husband and punish the guilty.

Though the Minister insisted that Pandey was a member of CPI (Maoist) and was killed in a gun battle with the Andhra Pradesh Police along with Azad, she conceded the demand for a ''probe.'' The Home Minister, however, did not specify when and by whom the probe will be done nor did she indicate any deadline for the investigation.