HYDERABAD: Vasudha Nagaraj, appearing for K Sajaya, an independent journalist, the petitioner in the PIL filed before the Telangana High Court in the encounter case, on Tuesday, stated before the judicial commission that National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) guidelines in encounter cases were violated by the investigating officer (IO).
She mentioned that the guidelines by the statutory body were violated during the inquest proceedings on the bodies of the accused at the encounter spot while transporting their bodies from the spot and during the postmortem examination of their bodies by a team of doctors from Gandhi Hospital, while lifting evidence from their bodies and also during their arrest.
She also presented that P Shyam Prasad, I Additional Junior Civil Judge cum Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate at Shadnagar, who granted 10-day police custody of the accused, didn’t follow the procedures and granted the custody, even as the accused were not present before him and without going into the details of the remand and the custody petitions.
Reacting to the arguments, the commission termed the act of the magistrate as “extremely horrible.”
When the commission asked her why she did not approach the High Court before approaching the commission, Nagraj said, “At that point, we did not have any suspicion due to our faith in the criminal justice system. When we were told that the accused were arrested, we waited for the law to take its course.”
She further contended that after the alleged encounter, a bizarre demand from all women and girls (who were victims of rape) increased to kill their perpetrators. Nagaraj argued that the granting of police custody was an extreme dereliction of constitutional duties as it was granted without examining the accused or making sure if the custody applications were served on them.
“This increases impunity in the encounter case. I cannot substantiate, but this is the way the accused are treated. Even the remand process by the Shadnagar executive magistrate is terrible.” While the encounter death itself is a concern, failure of these institutional mechanisms is another great concern, she stated.
Series of violations
The guidelines were violated during the inquest proceedings on the bodies of the accused at the encounter spot, while transporting their bodies from the spot and during the postmortem examination, while lifting evidence from their bodies and also during their arrest, she alleged