HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State Advocate General (AG) to submit another status report of the Peddapalli lawyers’ murder case before April 7. Lawyer couple G Vaman Rao and PV Nagamani were hacked to death on February 17 at Kalvacherla village in Ramagiri mandal of Peddapally district, sending shockwaves across the State. A division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, is dealing with the suo moto case which was taken up based on news reports published in various dailies on the ghastly incident. It is also dealing with the petition filed by Gattu Kishan Rao, who has sought a CBI probe into the murder of his son Vaman Rao and daughter-in-law Nagamani.
He termed the ongoing investigation by the Telangana Police as ‘biased and prejudiced’. His counsel G Bhasker Reddy had informed the court that they have lost faith in the State machinery.As directed the by the High Court earlier, AG BS Prasad submitted the status report on the progress of the police investigation before the court. He said the police have recorded the statements of the RTC bus drivers and conductors, passengers, bystanders and others who witnessed the murder before the magistrate concerned.
The AG said statements of 25 eyewitnesses have been recorded and necessary police protection has also been provided to them. The CCTV footage, along with hard disks, have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the reports are likely to be out in four weeks. Besides, confessional statements of the accused — Bittu Srinu, Chiranjeevi and Kumar — were recorded in the presence of the magistrate concerned. Statements of the other accused and co-accused were also recorded. The role of other accused is being probed, he informed the court.
The investigation officer has recovered the weapons and other material pertaining to the incident, while efforts are on to recover the mobile phones used by the accused during the crime. Investigation is underway in a fair manner, he said. After receiving the FSL report, a full-fledged chargesheet will be filed, he said and sought some more time to file another status report on the incident, he said. The bench posted the matter to April 7 for further hearing.