AP agrees to CBI probe into Azad's killing

The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would be agreeable to a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the killing of top Naxalite leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey by state police in a gunbattle in July last year.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, while taking on record the submission made by senior counsel Harish Salve on behalf of the state government, adjourned the matter till Monday for passing appropriate orders.

The bench adjourned the matter after Salve said that he needed certain instructions from the state government and would talk to the Union home ministry for allowing the CBI to take up the investigation into the matter.

The Centre and the state had on March 31 opposed in the apex court the demand for a judicial probe into the matter.