The Supreme Court will hear the matter on contents of the report submitted in a ‘sealed cover’ by the three-member Commission of Inquiry into the alleged encounter killing in December 2019 of four accused in the rape and murder of Disha at Chattanpally near Shadnagar, on Friday when the case was listed.
Senior IPS officer and former Police Commissioner of Cyberabad V C Sajjanar along with former DCP of Shamshabad zone Nyalakonda Prakash Reddy, and the then ACP of Shadnagar division V Surender on whose ‘instruction’ the police team opened fire in the wee hours of December 6, 2019, left for New Delhi on Thursday afternoon.
The three-member commission submitted the Report of the Inquiry Commission (in two volumes) in a sealed cover to the apex court on January 28. The Commission’s chairman and Supreme Court retired judge Justice V.S. Sirpurkar, members - Justice Rekha Sondur-Baldota and former director of CBI D.R. Karthikeyan, had held the hearings for 47 days between August 21 and November 15 last year and examined 57 witnesses. The apex court appointed the Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the circumstances under which the four accused — Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva, and Jollu Naveen, all natives of Narayanpet district — were killed in an alleged ‘exchange of fire’ while they were in police custody.
The members inspected various places associated with the incident on December 5. It collected various documentary evidence, including investigation records, forensic and post-mortem reports, photographs and videos for submission to the court. The Commission also heard oral arguments from all the advocates from November 16 to 26.
On February 23, when the report was opened for the first time, the SC refused to share it with the lawyers, and also directed its registry to provide a copy of the report submitted by the Justice V S Sirpurkar inquiry panel to the judges on the bench.
The Sirpurkar panel was set up on December 12, 2019, to submit a report in six months, and the term of the inquiry panel was extended thrice. While appointing the panel, the Supreme Court had stayed the proceedings pending in the High Court of Telangana and the National Human Rights Commission in connection with the case. However, the Special Investigation Team appointed by Telangana police was allowed to investigate the case and submit a report. “No other authority shall inquire into the matter pending before the commission till further orders,” it said.
