Telangana HC says no to CBI probe in lawyer couple murder

Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, March 16

The Telangana High Court has ruled out the option of handing over the probe into the murder of the lawyer couple to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) observing there is no need for a probe by the CBI as the state police were working on the case as per the records before it.

A petition by slain lawyer Gattu Vaman Rao’s father Gattu Kishan Rao had sought a probe by the CBI expressing dissatisfaction over the manner in which the probe was progressing.

It may be recalled that in February, a lawyer couple was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants in broad daylight in Peddapalli district.

The victim before his death had named a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader as being responsible for the attack.

Gattu Vaman Rao and his wife Nagamani were both practising lawyers at the Telangana High Court.

They were waylaid on their way home and hacked to death near Kalvacherla village of Ramagiri Mandal in Telangana.

Taking up the matter, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Hima Kohli observed that the court shares the petitioner’s pain but pointed out that it was directly monitoring the probe.

It also felt that the investigations were going on in the right direction and if the case was entrusted to the CBI, this could lead to further delay.

The Advocate General submitted a report to the court on the status of the investigations. The court was informed that the police recovered the weapons used in the murder.