The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed Khammam police in Telangana to preserve the bodies of the eight Maoists who were killed in an allegedly fake encounter in Sukma district of neighbouring Chhattisgarh on March 1.

The elite anti-Naxal force of Telangana police, Greyhounds, was involved in the encounter.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale and Justice P Naveen Rao passed the order on a public interest litigation filed by the State Civil Liberties Committee, an NGO, alleging that the encounter was fake.

The bench directed that if the relatives of the slain Naxals came forward to claim the bodies, the police may record their statement and hand over the bodies. This process must be videographed, it said.

The unclaimed bodies will be preserved till March 9 when the court will hear the PIL, the judges said.

Additional Advocate General J Ramchander Rao said that two of the bodies had already been handed over to relatives.