HYDERABAD: After the death of four accused in the rape and murder of a veterinarian at Shadnagar in an ‘encounter’, a huge crowd of around 40,000 people gathered near the site of incident in Chattanpally, creating traffic jam for up to 15 km on the national highway. As a result, the investigating officer (IO) Additional DCP Rachakonda J Surender Reddy did not wait for the Judicial Magistrate to visit the scene for conducting inquest, he told the commission appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the death of four accused.
Though the procedures mandated the inquest of the bodies and the site by a Judicial Magistrate, the Executive Magistrate rank officers had conducted the inquest at the site. The investigating officer informed the commission there was a huge crowd gathered near the scene, due to which the Judicial Magistrate did not come to the spot and that the magistrate had come to the hospital directly for post mortem examination.However, when he was asked based on the video clips submitted to the commission by the police department and asked him to show the Executive Magistrates at the scene of the incident, there was no answer from him.
He also admitted before the commission that only one police officer in a rank higher to him, DCP Shamshabad was present at the site. But when the commission members pointed to other officers in the video, which was played during the examination, he stated that the then DCP Madhapur and DCP Cyberabad commissionerate were also at the scene and that they had come to the spot only to visit and left immediately.When the commission pointed out why ACP Shadnagar, who had led the police party that fired at the accused, killing them, was present in the scene, while he is supposed to be not in the scene of the incident, he informed that he was escorting senior officers who had visited the scene.
When the commission asked why he did not wait for the Judicial Magistrate to come to conduct the inquest, he said due to the huge crowd gathered near the site, he had to move the bodies immediately. When the commission asked whether he had consulted DCP Shamshabad before moving the bodies from the site, the latter had asked him to finish the shifting process at the earliest and that he followed the same instructions, shifted the bodies immediately without waiting for the Judicial Magistrate to come and conduct the inquest. However, after verifying the video clips, the commission said that there was good number of force and the crowds were 500 metres away from the scene, shifting the bodies in a hurry was surprising.
‘Just one higher ranked officer present’
The investigating officer (IO), Additional DCP Rachakonda, J Surender Reddy admitted that only one police officer in a rank higher to him, DCP Shamshabad was present at the site.