The Supreme Court on Wednesday scheduled a hearing after a week into Justice V.S. Sirpurkar Inquiry Commission’s sealed cover report on the circumstances leading to the death of four men, accused of the gang rape and murder of a veterinarian, in an alleged encounter with the Hyderabad police on December 6, 2019.
A Bench led by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said the court has received the Commission’s report in two volumes on January 28, 2022.
”The report was opened in court today [Wednesday]. We direct the Registry to supply copies of the report to the judges comprising this Bench. List these matters after one week,” the apex court said.
The Bench also comprises Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli.
On December 12, 2019, the apex court had constituted the Commission led by former apex court judge, Justice Sirpurkar, for inquiring into the circumstances in which the four accused persons — Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen — were killed.
The inquiry was postponed for months due to the pandemic.
The Justice Sirpurkar Commission had said despite the pandemic restrictions, they received a whopping 1,365 affidavits from the Hyderabad police officers allegedly involved and the families of the accused. It had also collected the reports of the National Human Rights Commission, the Special Investigation Team, post–mortem reports, etc, in the case.
The four accused were taken to the scene of the crime around 60 km from Hyderabad in the early hours of December 6 for a re-construction of crime scene.
The Telangana government has stuck to its version that the accused surprised their police escort there, grabbed their guns and tried to kill the policemen to escape from custody. The posse retaliated and the four were killed in the cross–firing.
