Slain Telangana undertrial's father moves court for CBI probe

The father of one of the five undertrial prisoners gunned down last week by police in Telangana has approached the high court, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into his killing.

Mohammed Ahmed, father of Viquar Ahmed, filed a petition in the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday, seeking directions to the Telangana government to order a probe by the CBI.

Alleging that his son and four others were murdered in cold blood by police, Ahmed pleaded that a First Information Report (FIR) be registered against 17 policemen in connection with the April 7 incident.

Ahmed said he on Saturday lodged a complaint at Aler police station in Nalgonda district but the police did not register the case.

Viquar and four others, all accused in the killing of two policemen, were shot dead by a police team near Aler on April 7 while they were being brought to Hyderabad from the Warangal Central Jail.

Police claimed that the policemen escorting the undertrials had to open fire as they tried to snatch weapons and flee.

The families of the slain undertrials and human rights groups have termed the incident "fake" and "stage-managed". They said since all undertrials were handcuffed and chained to the seats in police vehicle, they would have no chance to snatch weapons.

The state government has ordered the probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), but the United Muslim Forum, an umbrella grouping of Muslim organisations, has rejected this. The forum is insisting on its demand for probe by the CBI or by a sitting judge of the high court.

The forum organised a protest meeting in Hyderabad late on Tuesday night. Abdul Azeem, a lawyer of Viquar and two others, told the meeting that a petition would be filed, seeking an independent probe.

Addressing the meeting, Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi said if necessary the forum would hire top lawyers from Delhi to fight the case.