Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of Telangana High Court on Tuesday suspended until further orders the report of Justice V.S. Sirpurkar Commission of Inquiry, which found fault with 10 police officers of different ranks in the ‘Disha encounter’ case.
The judge passed the interim direction after hearing two writ petitions — one filed by the Station House Officer (Inspector) of Shadnagar of Cyberabad Police Commissionerate A. Sridhar and the other by Tehsildar Jaruplavath Pandu, seeking a direction to quash the adverse findings against them in the report. The judge also passed instructions to the State government not to initiate any coercive steps against the police officers (who filed separate writ petitions) till the next date of hearing. All the pleas were adjourned to July for next hearing.
A 26-year-old veterinarian was found dead on the morning of November 28, 2019 at a secluded place off the Chintapally bridge in Shadnagar police station area. Later, the investigators arrested four youngsters Mohammed Arif, Jolly Naveen, Jolly Shiva and Chinthakunta Chennakeshavulu accusing them of gang-raping and murdering the veterinarian.
On the morning of December 6, 2019, all four accused were killed in police firing when they were taken to the crime scene to reconstruct the sequence of events. Police then claimed that they had to open fire at the accused in self-defence as one of them snatched their weapon and fired at them. The Supreme Court ordered an inquiry into the “alleged fake encounter” by constituting a three-member commission of inquiry headed by Justice V.S. Sirpurkar.
The Commission submitted its report on January 28, 2022. The report found fault with the police officers involved in the case which came to be known as the ‘Disha encounter case’ and recommended issuing of First Information Report against the police officers connected to the matter. Mr. Sridhar and Mr. Pandu moved the HC last year seeking a direction to call for records of the inquiry commission. They contended that the Commission’s recommendation for penal action against them was beyond the scope of Commission of Inquiry Act and it was against principles of natural justice.
There is a separate batch of PIL petitions seeking an investigation into the Disha case by CBI (one of the prayers) being heard by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe. The police officers, against whom the Commission report found fault with, got impleaded in these PIL pleas. These petitions are slated for final hearing.
