HYDERABAD: Deposing before the three-member commission, J Surender Reddy, DCP, Special Operations team, Rachakonda Police Commissionerate, who is the Investigating Officer (IO) in the case of the alleged encounter, where four rape and murder accused were killed in December 2019, said that the alleged encounter spot, from where the victim’s articles were recovered, was not covered in any photographs and videography recordings.
“I instructed the Clues team staff to videograph the topography of the entire area near the spot, but they did not follow the instructions,” he said.
The Clues team of Hyderabad City Police was assigned the task of collecting the clues, photographs and videographing the entire spot, and the panchnama procedures.
Police had earlier stated that when the accused were brought to the spot for recovering the articles belonging to the veterinarian, the accused attacked the police party, snatched their weapons and fired at them. In retaliation, police opened fire at the accused, leaving all four accused dead.
After going through the video clips submitted by Reddy, the commission questioned him as to why the clips do not show the topography of the entire area. “I do not know. I had instructed the Clues team to record the photographs and videograph the entire topography of the scene,” he said.
When asked if it didn’t occur to him that the topography of the whole area and various ‘points’, such as the place from where the police fired at the accused, place where the panchas stood and the embankments on the spot, should have been recorded for a proper investigation, he said that he had instructed the Clues team, and he was busy with other work.
When asked if the ‘points’ were never even attempted to be photographed or videographed, he said, “The mob was causing a disturbance. I was giving instructions to manage the mob.” Later, he admitted that his job was to investigate the case and not manage the mob.
“I was under the impression that the videographer acted on my instructions and videographed the entire area. But only later, I realised that the video was not recorded as per the instructions. I had given instructions to cover the path which the police, panchas and accused took to reach the spot from the place where the bus was parked, but they were not covered in recording,” the Investigating Officer in the case of the alleged encounter said.