New Delhi: A Supreme Court-appointed Commission concluded today that four gang-rape and murder suspects slain in a police encounter in Telangana’s Hyderabad “were deliberately fired upon with a purpose to inflict their death.” Three of the four were children, according to the damning investigation on Hyderabad police action. The three were said to be 20-year-olds by the police.
The Commission also pointed out major flaws in the inquiry and recommended that ten police officers be charged with murder.
“In our considered opinion, the accused were deliberately fired upon with an intent to cause their death and with the knowledge that the firing would invariably result in the death of the deceased suspect,” the report said.
“We are of the opinion that at the relevant time, Jolu Shiva, Jolu Naveen, and Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu were minors,” it said.
Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva, and Jollu Naveen were arrested in November 2019 in connection with the rape and murder of a veterinary lady doctor.
The four accused were shot dead on NH-44 in Hyderabad, the same roadway where a 27-year-old veterinarian’s burnt body was discovered.
According to the authorities, the lady veterinarian was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, then murdered on November 27, 2019. According to the report, the suspects then torched the woman’s body.
The Supreme Court today ordered the release of a three-member investigation commission’s sealed cover report on the encounter deaths of four suspects in a case of gang rape and the murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad, and sent the issue to the Telangana High Court for further action.
The petitions of senior attorney Shyam Divan that the report be kept under a sealed cover were rejected by a bench consisting of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
“This relates to the encounter case. There is nothing to keep here. The Commission has found someone guilty. We want to send the matter to the high court,” the bench said.
The top court had allowed the Commission, led by former top court judge VS Sirpurkar, a six-month extension to file the final report on the encounter killing of the four suspects in the case of gang-rape and murder of the veterinarian, on August 3, last year.
On December 12, 2019, the Sirpurkar panel was formed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the encounter and provide a report within six months.
Former Bombay High Court judge Rekha Sondur Baldota and ex-CBI director DR Karthikeyan are among the Commission’s other members.
The inquiry panel’s tenure has already been extended three times. For the first time, it was extended for six months in July 2020.
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