HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the Telangana government to submit report of the post mortem conducted on those killed in the recent encounter at Bhadradri Kothagudem district, and its video clipping in a sealed cover before the court by next date of case hearing i.e. December 22.The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shyam Prasad was passing this order in a PIL filed by the Civil Liberties Committee, represented by its president Gaddam Laxman of the city, seeking court monitored SIT or CBI probe into the killing of nine persons in ‘police encounter’ at Nelamadugu village in Tekulapally mandal of the district on December 14.
The petitioner committee sought court direction to the government for registering criminal case under Section 302 IPC against the police personnel participated in the incident. The police claimed that the deceased persons belong to CPI-ML (Chandra Pulla Reddy (Bata)), a splinter naxalite group, and were aged between 25 and 30 years.
Petitioner’s counsel V Raghunath told the court that initially thought of killing eight persons, but later found another body near the encounter place. Severe external injuries were found on the dead bodies. The police party gunned them down from a close range and the incident took place as per the plan. In spite of the pleadings of family members of the deceased not to conduct post mortem on the same night, the authorities went ahead to conduct post mortem at a civil hospital in Kothagudem which lacks requisite machinery and expertise, he pointed out and sought the court to order for a court monitored SIT or CBI probe for a free and fair investigation.
On the other hand, Telangana additional advocate general J Ramachander Rao submitted that the post mortem was conducted and videographed as per guidelines of the Supreme Court, and the dead bodies were handed over to the family members and were cremated. The investigation into the incident was handed over to an officer of DSP rank. As for the petitioner’s allegations, he sought some time for filing counter affidavit on it.
Disputing with the submissions of AAG, the petitioner’s counsel while terming the incident as bogus encounter, said that it would not be proper to handover the case investigation to a DSP since the district SP concerned has a role in it.Meanwhile, the bench directed for placing the videograph of the post mortem and its report before the court and for filing counter affidavit on the issue, and posted the matter to December 22 for further hearing.