NHRC team meets families of slain Hyderabad rape accused

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, December 8

The investigative team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from Delhi on Sunday met the families of four persons killed in a police encounter as part of its ongoing probe into the incident. 

On December 6, four accused for gang-rape and murder of a veterinary doctor were killed in a police encounter when they were taken to the crime scene for ascertaining of certain facts. Police have said it fired in retaliation when the accused fired at the police in a bid to escape.

The NHRC team is being led by Manzil Saini, a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) rank IPS officer of 2005 batch from Uttar Pradesh cadre. He is accompanied by forensic experts and doctors who conducted autopsy and videographed the process at the Mahabubnagar District hospital. 

The bodies of the four accused were moved the Medical College in Mahabubnagar as they started decomposing and the district hospital has no facility to preserve them. In response to a petition alleging “extra-judicial killings” and requesting judicial intervention, the Telangana High Court has directed that the bodies be preserved till Monday.

Family members of the accused, who have been waiting to receive the bodies for performing the last rights will have to wait till Tuesday before being able to do so, provided the same is cleared by the high court. They were today brought to the city from Narayanpet district and were made to meet the NHRC team at the National Police Academy premises, from where the team operating.

The seven-member NHRC team is on a “fact-finding” mission after the Commission took a suo moto notice of the killing of the accused in an encounter from the media. Yesterday, the team had visited the mortuary where a second autopsy was conducted. Later, they visited the site of the encounter, but it was after it got dark. The team visited various places linked to the crime and encounter today also.

The NHRC team also questioned some members of the police team that had taken the four accused to Chattanpalli, about 50 km from the city and to other places connected with the crime. According to the police, the four tried to escape when they were taken to the place where they burnt the victim. The police were also to recover the phone, wrist-watch and other items belonging to the victim.

During the investigation, Cyberabad Police claim its personnel were attacked after the weapons of two uniformed men were snatched and in “retaliatory” firing the four were killed. The forensic experts have recovered over a dozen bullets from the encounter site, while the post mortem report, which has not been revealed yet is believed to have mentioned that the bodies did not contain any bullets, which seems to have exited the body as the range of firing was short.