HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday began the proceedings in a batch of PILs pertaining to the death of the accused in Disha’s rape and murder case. Vrinda Grover, a senior counsel from the Supreme Court, argued on the PILs for about two hours and delayed the batch PILs till January 2, 2023.
The Bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy heard at length, arguments submitted by Grover. Disha, a young veterinarian, was discovered charred on the morning of November 28, 2019. Later, the police apprehended four persons who were suspected to have raped and killed her.
The accused were initially held in court detention, then transported into police custody, and on the morning of December 6, 2019, they were shot down by 10 armed police officers while being led out to retrieve Disha’s goods at the place of the occurrence of the crime.
The police alleged that they were compelled to kill in self-defence as the four suspects tried to escape after assaulting them. Grover stated that on the afternoon of December 6, 2019, after being startled by the encounter of the four men, women, and human rights activists wrote to the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, requesting a fair and impartial inquiry.
The high court on that very night heard the issue and made directives concerning the preservation of remains. It was keeping an eye on the probe and wanted to know if the PUCL norms were followed in this case.
Commission of Inquiry
Meanwhile, on December 12, 2019, the Supreme Court established a Commission of Inquiry. The commission held its proceedings at the Telangana High Court from August to December, 2021 and submitted its report on January 28, 2022.
On May 20, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that all parties should submit their representations to the Telangana High Court which would hear them. The Commission of Inquiry in its lengthy report stretching to 383 pages suggested that “all the 10 police officers who were engaged in the encounter are to be tried for the charges under Section 302 r/w 34 IPC, 201 r/w 302 IPC and 34 IPC. The commission decided that the various acts perpetrated by the police officers were all part of a larger plan to kill the dead suspects.”
Grover noted that in the wake of the full findings of the Commission of Inquiry, it is now important that the Telangana High Court instruct the Telangana government to initiate an FIR against the policemen identified in the inquiry report.
She further pointed out that at the time of the death of the four suspects, the police registered an FIR against the deceased suspects and did not record an FIR against the officers who had slain the four men. This is despite the Telangana High Court ordering the State to follow the rules outlined in the PUCL decision.The filing of FIR against the dead individuals was questioned by the Supreme Court too in its order dated December 12, 2019. The arguments will continue till January 2, 2023.