After National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) and civic activists sought judicial intervention, the Telangana High Court directed authorities to preserve accused bodies till December 9, who were gunned down by police near Shadnagar town.
The matter will come up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice R. S. Chauhan on December 9. Police claimed that the accused snatched weapons from police party and opened fire and in the retaliatory fire by police, all four were killed. The bodies of the four youth were shifted to a government-run hospital in Mahabubnagar, where the autopsy was done. The bodies were preserved in the hospital’s mortuary. Advocate General B.S. Prasad informed the High Court that a team of forensic experts from Hyderabad’s Gandhi Hospital conducted the autopsy and the entire process was videographed. The court directed that the video be handed over to the Mahabubnagar district judge, who, in turn, will submit the same to the bench.
The petition, signed by as many as 15 organisations, alleged that the encounter was carried out in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines. They sought autopsy by experts from New Delhi or from states other than Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. They also sought orders to constitute an independent court-monitored committee to examine FIRs registered in the case, records of government vehicles used by all police officers engaged in the encounter, their call details records and the preservation of evidentiary material.
