Telangana Encounter: HC orders fresh post-mortem of four accused

Hyderabad, Dec 21: The Telangana High Court on Saturday directed the State government to conduct a re-post-mortem of the bodies of the four accused, which have been preserved in Gandhi Hospital mortuary.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy directed Telangana's Principal Secretary, Medical and Health Department, to request the Director of All India Medical Sciences, Delhi to constitute a medical team with three expert forensic specialists to conduct the second postmortem.

The bench further directed that the second autopsy should be conducted before December 23, and the report with their findings shall be submitted to the Registrar General of the High Court.

After the postmortem the bodies can be handed over to the kin of the four men. The doctors were further advised to express an independent view on the basis of the evidence collected by them.

The Bench also directed the Chief of the Special Investigation team (SIT) constituted by the State government to investigate into the encounter killings to seize all material objects such as case diary, movement register of the police officials, inventory of the weapons used by the officials in the encounter among others.

The same shall be placed before the Commission constituted by the Supreme Court whenever requested. The bench passed the orders after hearing a bunch of petitions seeking a direction from the court.

The bench further directed that the state government shall make all arrangements for the air travel of the medical team from AIIMS, for their accommodation and other facilities which would enable them to efficiently discharge the duty assigned to them.

Four accused were shot dead in an encounter. All the four were taken to the spot of the incident to reconstruct the crime scene.

The encounter took place around 6.30 am when the accused, lorry workers aged between 20 and 26, were taken to the crime scene near Hyderabad for a reconstruction of events as part of the investigation.

Reportedly, the accused snatched weapons from police and fired at them and tried to escape, to which cops fired in retaliation in which the four accused died, police said.

The four accused were arrested on November 29 on the charges of gang rape and murder of the 26-years-old veterinary female doctor by smothering her and later burning her body, the heinous incident triggered nationwide outrage and recalled the horrors of December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case in Delhi.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also took cognisance of the killing of four men accused of raping and murdering a woman veterinarian in Hyderabad and ordered an inquiry into the police encounter.