Supreme Court sends Hyderabad encounter probe report to HC, orders its sharing with parties

The Supreme Court ordered sharing of the sealed cover report of a threemember inquiry commission on the encounter killings of four accused in a case of gang rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad and transferred the matter to the Telangana High Court for further actionA bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli did not agree to the submissions of senior advocate Shyam Divan that the report is kept in a sealed cover 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 saidWe have to send the case back to the high court we cannot monitor this case A detailed report is submitted Question is what is the proper action to be taken They have made some recommendations the bench said adding We direct the commission secretariat to provide a copy of the report to both parties Earlier the bench had refused to share with lawyers the sealed cover report for the time being of the Commission headed by apex court judge Justice since retired VS Sirpurkar which probed the encounter killing of the four accused It however had directed its registry to provide a copy of the report submitted by the Justice Sirpurkar inquiry panel to the judges on the benchLet us go through the report first the CJI had said while expressing reservation to share the sealed cover report for the time being with the lawyers concerned Prior to this the top court on August 3 last year had granted the extension of six months to the Commission headed by former apex court judge VS Sirpurkar to file the final report on encounter killing of the four accused in the case of gangrape and murder of the veterinarianThe Sirpurkar panel was set up on December 12 2019 to inquire into the circumstances leading to the encounter and was to submit the report in six months The other members of the Commission include former Bombay High Court judge Rekha Sondur Baldota and exCBI director D R Karthikeyan The term of the inquiry panel has now been extended thrice It was extended in July 2020 for the first time for six months While appointing the panel the top court had stayed the proceedings pending in the Telangana High Court and the National Human Rights Commission NHRC in the case and had sought an SIT report saying no other authority shall inquire into the matter pending before the Commission till further ordersIt had ordered that security to the Commission shall be provided by the Central Reserve Police Force CRPF and the sixmonth deadline for submission of the report by the Commission shall start from the first day of the hearing and it shall have all the power under the Commission of Inquiry Act for conducting an inquiry into the December 6 2019 encounter deaths The top court had noted that conflicting versions about the incident demand an inquiry to uncover the true facts It had directed that the panel would sit at Hyderabad and all the expenses including for the secretarial staff would be borne by the Telangana government Further the state would render all assistance required by the Commission Two petitions were filed in the Supreme Court one by lawyers G S Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav and the other by advocate M L Sharma seeking an independent investigation against the police officers concernedThe PIL filed by Mani and Yadav claimed that the alleged encounter was fake and an FIR should be lodged against police officers involved in the incident The Telangana Police had said the accused were killed in an exchange of fire The incident took place around 630 am when the accused were taken to the site of the offence for the reconstruction of the scene of the crime as part of the investigation The four accused Mohammed Arif Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen were arrested in connection with the gangrape and murder of veterinary lady doctor in November 2019The four accused were shot dead on NH44 near Hyderabad the same highway where the charred body of a 27yearold veterinarian was found The police had claimed that on November 27 2019 the woman veterinarian was kidnapped sexually assaulted and later found murdered It had said that the accused had subsequently burned the body of the womanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever