HYDERABAD: Head Constable Mohd Sirajuddin of the Special Operations Team (SOT) while deposing before the judicial commission on Friday said that DCP (SOT) Rachakonda, J Surender Reddy, the Investigating Officer (IO) in the ‘encounter’ case, had written many things which he had not said, in the statement recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC.
Sirajuddin was among the police party that fired at the four accused in the rape and murder of a veterinarian at Chatanpally near Shadnagar in 2019, resulting in their death. He was armed with an SLR rifle at the time of the incident.
The commission then directed Sirajuddin to go through his statement completely and mark the portions that were not stated by him, but included by the Investigating Officer.Further, when questioned on his statement recorded by the NHRC after the incident, he disowned several portions there as well.
When asked if he had not stated before the National Human Rights Commission that one of the accused Mohd Arif snatched the weapon of Inspector K Narsimha Reddy and he had also not stated that any of the accused threw soil into the eyes of the police party, Sirajuddin said, “I had stated the same but they did not record it. The statement was not reduced into writing in my presence.”
When the panel pointed out that except for firing, the police party did not make any effort to chase the accused to apprehend them, Sirajuddin said that he could take an individual decision and had to act as per instructions of superiors.