HYDERABAD: During his deposition before the three-member judicial commission on Monday, former Shadnagar ACP V Surender was grilled on various events that forced the police party to open fire on the four accused persons while they were brought for recovery of articles belonging to the victim, resulting in their death. He was also asked about several aspects of the incident of firing, which he had missed out in his complaint to the police.
Surender said that he did not give orders to fire at first, and it was the accused who had first started firing shots. He said after cautioning the police party to prevent the accused from escaping, he instructed his team to first fire in the air and ask the accused to surrender. “When the accused did not stop firing even then, I ordered the team to fire in the direction of the sound of firing, in order to scare the accused. My orders were not to shoot at the accused, they were only to scare them.”
“There was a danger of the accused themselves or my team getting hurt because of their firing. They were already accused in a rape and murder case. In order to re-arrest them by any means and to protect the panchas and my other team members, we had to fire,” Surender added.
Commission notes hesitation
When Surender delayed in replying to a question regarding a statement in his affidavit, and was asked if he had not considered this fact relevant, the commission recorded, “The witness has taken an unusually long time to answer the question. He was going through papers.”