Bodies of 4 men killed in Telangana encounter to be kept for further probe: SC

Source – hindustantimes.com

The bodies of the four men accused in the veterinary doctor’s rape and murder case, who were killed in an alleged encounter with the police at Chatanpalli village of Telangana’s Shadnagar town last week, will continue to remain in the morgue of the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad for an indefinite period.

The Telangana high court, which was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by a group of rights’ activists, directed that the state government take steps to preserve the bodies of the four men – Mohammad Arif, Jollu Naveen, Jollu Shiva and Chintakunta Chenna Kesavulu – till further orders from the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee headed by retired judge Justice V S Sirpurkar and comprising of retired Bombay high court judge Justice Rekha Prakash Sondur Baldota and former CBI director D R Karthikeyan to investigate the killing of the four accused in the alleged police encounter and submit a report to it within six months.

The Supreme Court directed that till the three-member committee completes its probe, all the other investigations related to this case including the one by a special investigation team (SIT) and the case in the high court, would come to a standstill.

A two-member bench of the high court comprising chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy made it clear that it would no longer enquire into the matter. The bench, however, sought a direction from the Supreme Court as to what should be done with the bodies of the four suspects in the vet’s rape and murder case.

The bench told the petitioners that as per the information from the Supreme Court, the three-member committee was expected to land in Hyderabad in a couple of days to commence its investigation. “Since there is a possibility of the committee calling for a re-post mortem of the four bodies, they should be preserved in the mortuary until further orders from the SC,” the bench said.