HYDERABAD: N Venkanna, Assistant Director, Clues team, Hyderabad City Police, deposed for the second consecutive day before the three-member commission formed by the Supreme Court to probe into the death of the four accused in the rape and murder case of a veterinarian at Shadnagar in 2019 in an alleged encounter. He, along with his team, had assisted the police in collecting clues and physical evidence from the spot, where the four accused were killed.
“As a lot of crowd [was] present at the spot, I was unable to ask the police about the weapons (used by them in the firing) for (examination and recovery),” Venkanna said during the deposition on Tuesday.
Venkanna said that they collected 19 empty cartridges from the scene, but that he doesn’t remember how many of them belonged to a SLR firearm. He then stated three ‘7.62mm SLR/ AK-47’ empty cartridges were recovered from the scene. He, however, added that 7.62mm cartridges are used in AK-47 and that he doesn’t know the caliber of SLR firearms.
“I do not know the exact number of empty SLR cartridges recovered from the scene during the panchnama and I don’t have much idea about the caliber of the spent cartridges. I came to the conclusion that certain recovered cartridges are 7.62mm, as it was found on the backside of the empty recovered cartridges,” he said.
Responding to a question, he said, “It was my responsibility to immediately examine and recover the AK-47 and SLR firearms used by the police in the firing, but I couldn’t do that as they were with the police party. So, I didn’t have an opportunity to examine them.”
He added that he didn’t instruct the fingerprint experts in his team to collect fingerprints from the firearms used by the police as he was not sure if fingerprints could be recovered from them. “Weapons in the hands of the accused were checked for fingerprints, but didn’t feel it [was] necessary to check the weapons with the police.”
‘Not a ballistic expert’, official tells panel
Dr N Venkanna said it’s not possible that Gunshot Residue (GSR) appears on the hands of a body, after somebody fires a shot and the pistol is placed into its hands, if it has not suffered rigor mortis (postmortem rigidity). “When a firearm is placed (immediately after firing) in the hands of a dead body, and before the formation of rigor mortis, it might be possible for GSR to deposit on the hands,” he added. When asked if he was aware that according to the Forensic Guide for Crime Investigators by National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science (NICFS), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), when a firearm is planted into the hands of a victim, GSR will be found in the hands of the victim, he said that he does not know about it as he is not a ballistic expert