Overview
- A two-judge bench directed that Katha Ramchandra Reddy’s body not be cremated or buried until the Chhattisgarh High Court hears his son’s petition.
- The petitioner alleges a staged killing and seeks an independent CBI probe and a fresh post-mortem conducted outside the state police’s control.
- The court left all issues on merit open and asked the High Court to prioritise the case once it reopens after the Dussehra/Puja vacation.
- The state told the court a videographed post-mortem was already done, weapons were recovered at the site, and one of the two bodies from the September 22 encounter has been handed over and cremated.
- Officials said Reddy was a commander with bounties reported at about ₹2 crore across seven states, though some reports cite ₹7 crore, underscoring conflicting accounts.