The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to Orissa and Andhra Pradesh governments over a complaint that a large number of innocent people were being picked up by the Andhra police in the bordering districts of Orissa on suspicion of being Naxalites.The notices issued to the Directors General of Police of both states are to be replied within four weeks containing the requisite information, official sources said.The NHRC had issued the notices on the complaint received from a human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo who had alleged that Dasuram Mallick, a tribal poet, had been picked up by Andhra police from Rayagada town of Orissa.A citizens’ committee, which had inquired into the matter, had alleged that a large number of innocent people taken into custody on suspicion of their being Naxalites were lodged in jails of Andhra Pradesh for months without trial.
