NHRC team begins probe into police encounter in woman vet case

A seven-member NHRC committee on Saturday began its inquiry into the alleged police encounter in which all four accused in the rape and murder of a young veterinarian rape and murder were killed,visiting the mortuary at a state-run hospital in Mahabubnagar district, where their bodies ave been kept after post-mortem.

The team, including a forensic medicine expert, examined the bodies and also visited Chattanpalli village, about 50 kms from here, the spot where the charred remains of the woman were found beneath a culvert on November 28, and also the encounter site nearby.

The investigative committee of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) came here to "note down the incident", and visited the mortuary and the scene of offence, DCP (Shamshabad Zone) N Prakash Reddy told reporters.

"They visited the scene of the crime and are in the process of investigation," he said.

An expert who is part of the team that conducted the post-mortem said the NHRC team checked whether the post-mortem was conducted as per protocol or not, among others.

He said the post mortem report would be prepared in two days.

The NHRC took cognisance of the encounter killings of the four accused in the case and ordered a probe on Friday.

The apex human rights body in the country had said the encounter was a matter of concern and needed to be investigated carefully.

"The commission is of the opinion that this matter is required to be probed very carefully. Accordingly, it has asked its Director General (Investigation) to immediately send a team for a fact-finding, on-the-spot investigation into the matter," the NHRC said.

The post-mortem of the four accused was done at the Government District Hospital in Mahabubnagar district and videographed.

The Telangana High Court had on Friday directed the state government to preserve the bodies of four accused till 8:00 PM on December 9.

All the four accused were shot dead by police on Friday during a pre-dawn exchange of fire near Hyderabad.

The four were arrested on November 29 for allegedly raping and killing the 25-year-old woman by smothering her and later torching the body after dumping it under the culvert.