Families of the four men who were killed in an encounter with the Telangana police on December 6, 2019, eight days after they raped and murdered a 26-year-old woman on Hyderabad outskirts, are planning to move the state high court challenging the interim orders issued by a single-judge bench not to take any penal action against the police officers involved in the encounter.
On Wednesday, high court judge justice B Vijaysen Reddy suspended until further orders the report of justice VS Sirpurkar Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Supreme Court, which recommended action against the police officers under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code for killing the four rape-and-murder accused in an alleged fake encounter.
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“Justice Reddy also directed the state government to refrain from taking any coercive measures using the report of the Sirpurkar Commission against the the police officers till the next date of hearing in July,” senior counsel B Rachna Reddy, who argued the case on behalf of the police officials, said.
However, senior advocate PV Krishnamachary, who argued the case earlier on behalf of the families of the four encounter victims, took exception to the interim orders issued by justice Reddy suspending action against the police officers without hearing the version of the victims’ families.
“The police officers, who challenged Justice Sirpurkar Commission, did not include the victims’ families as respondents, so that the high court could hear their version. The interim orders were given in favour of the officers unilaterally. We shall challenge them in the court,” Krishnamachary said.
He also pointed out that a division bench headed by chief justice Alok Aradhe is already hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions (PILs) seeking justice for the encounter victims. The petitions are slated for final hearing. “How can the single judge bench pass orders when the issue is already before the division bench?” he asked.
The case
The four men – Mohd Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakesavulu – were killed in the “exchange of fire” with the police at Chatanpalli village near Shadnagar in Ranga Reddy district, about 50 km from Hyderabad on December 6, 2019.
The four were accused in the rape of a 26-year-old veterinarian (referred to as Disha, a pseudonym) at Shamshabad and later burning her alive at Chatanpally. The Cyberabad police arrested the accused within a couple of days. During the course of interrogation in the police custody, the police officials took the accused to Chatanpally for reconstruction of the crime, where they were killed in an exchange of fire.
The police had claimed then that they had to fire in self-defence as one of the accused snatched their weapon and fired at them.
Human rights activists and non-governmental organisations across the country, who accused it as a fake encounter, moved the Supreme Court and on December 12, a division bench headed by then Chief Justice of India SA Bobde appointed a three-member commission headed by former SC judge justice VS Sirpurkar and comprising former Bombay high court judge Justice Rekha Baldota and former CBI director Karthikeyan to enquire into the alleged encounter killings of four men.
The Sirpurkar Commission submitted its report on January 28, 2022 but it was disclosed by the Supreme Court on May 20, 2022. The report found fault with as many as 10 police officers involved in the case and recommended registering of cases against them under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
Of these 10 police officers, seven moved the high court seeking suspension of the commission report and further action against them, senior counsel for the police Rachana Reddy said.
She pointed out that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana Police, which simultaneously investigated the alleged exchange of fire between the police and the four accused, gave a clean chit to the police officers involved in the encounter.
The SIT, constituted by the state government on December 8, 2019, as per the directions of the high court, was later permitted by the top court to continue the investigation. The SIT, headed by former Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagavath and comprised seven top police officers who were not connected with the encounter case, submitted its report to the state government and the high court in 2021.
“The SIT established that the exchange of fire had indeed taken place and the police had acted according to the police manual,” Rachana Reddy added.
