Telangana High Court adjourns hearing on alleged encounter to Dec 13

The Telangana High Court on Thursday adjourned to Friday the public interest litigations (PILs) filed against the alleged encounter of the four men accused in the gang-rape and murder of a woman veterinarian near here last month.

The matter came up before a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice R S Chauhan.

The court was initially not inclined to go ahead with the matter on the ground that the Supreme Court was seized of the issue.

During the hearing, the Telangana advocate-general informed the Bench that the Supreme Court had stayed the case pending before the high court.

The Supreme Court appointed on Thursday a three-member inquiry commission headed by former apex court judge V S Sirpurkar to inquire into the circumstances leading to the encounter killing of the four.

The commission, which also included former Bombay High Court judge Rekha Sondur Baldota and ex-CBI director D R Karthikeyan, would submit its report to the Supreme Court in six months.

With regard to the bodies of the four accused who were killed in the alleged encounter, the High Court asked the advocate-general to get a clarification from the Supreme Court on the matter by Friday.

As per the earlier orders of the High Court, they were to be preserved in the state-run Gandhi Hospital here till Friday.

The advocate-general argued that the state has no interest to preserve the bodies and the Supreme Court did not say anything about the issue, hence, the bodies need not be preserved.

However, counsel for the petitioners argued that having preserved so far they should be preserved for a further period, so that the commission appointed by the Supreme Court can take stock of the situation and would give further orders in the matter.

The case was adjourned to Friday afternoon to facilitate the advocate-general to get a clarification on the issue.

The four accused were arrested on November 29 for allegedly raping and killing thewoman by smothering her and later burning her body.

They were gunned down by police last Friday at Chattanpalli when they were taken to the scene of crime near the culvert, under which the charred remains of the 25-year- old veterinarian were found on November 28, to recover her phone, wrist-watch and others pertaining to the case.

The Cyberabad police had said its personnel resorted to retaliatory firing after two of the accused allegedly opened fire at police after snatching their weapons besides attacking the latter with stones and sticks, resulting in injuries to two policemen.