HYDERABAD : The Telangana High Court on Wednesday stayed the Justice VS Sirpurkar Commission’s report, which had recommended criminal action against the accused officials, in the Disha ‘encounter’ case.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy directed the state government to refrain from taking any coercive measures using the report of the Commission of Inquiry led by Justice VS Sirpurkar, dated January 28, 2022, against police officers involved in an exchange of fire on the outskirts of Chatanpally village in Farooqnagar mandal on the city outskirts.
It may be recalled that a 26-year-old veterinary doctor ‘Disha’ was raped and murdered under Chatanpally bridge in Shadnagar on November 28, 2019. Subsequently, the police arrested four suspects in the case. When the accused were taken out to reconstruct the crime scene, they reportedly started attacking the police personnel, who fired back at them in self-defence, killing them in the process. Later, the Supreme Court constituted the Justice Sirpurkar Commission to investigate the allegations of extrajudicial killings by the police. The commission had recommended criminal action against the officials.
However, seven police officers involved in the alleged encounter filed individual writ petitions challenging the report. The high court on Wednesday directed the state government to refrain from taking any action until the next hearing in July after examining arguments presented by senior counsels H Venugopal, N Hemendranadh Reddy and B Rachana Reddy.
Relief for all police officials in Disha case
As the court issued a stay order on the report of the Commission, not only the seven officials, the petitioners in the case, but also all the other top police officials would get relief as well.
The court also heard two additional writ petitions filed by former Farooqnagar tahsildar Jaravath Pandu and Shadnagar Station House Officer A Sridhar. Senior counsels P Sri Raghuram and K Vivek Reddy argued on behalf of the tahsildar and the SHO, respectively.
The case has been adjourned to July 2024. The individuals who filed individual petitions in the high court challenging the Commission’s report are Jaravath Pandu, tahsildar; A Sreedhar Kumar, the then SHO; Kocherla Ravi, Sub-Inspector of Police; Shaik Lal Madhar, Sub-Inspector of Police; Devarashetty Srikanth, Head Constable; Konda Narasimha Reddy, Inspector of Police, Cyberabad Police Commissionerate; Balu Rathod, Police Constable Cyberabad Police Commissionerate; and Dharamkar Janakiram (HG No 2905).