Supreme Court panel says only some video footage of incident produced before it

hyderabad: The Supreme Court-appointed Commission to inquire into the alleged encounter killing of four people, accused of raping and murdering a veterinarian here in December 2019, said only some of the video footages of the scene of the incident were produced before it and that there was an unexplained delay in sending the FIR to the court.

The three-member Inquiry Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice V S Sirpurkar, in its report submitted to the Apex Court, had revealed that firing by the police was deliberate and three of the deceased were juveniles.

The four suspects - Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen - were arrested on November 29, 2019 in connection with the gang-rape and murder of the woman veterinarian on November 27.

The four men were killed in an alleged encounter, (while in police custody), with the police on December 6, 2019 at Chattanpally near here, the same highway where the charred body of the 25-year-old veterinarian was found. Cyberabad police had said its personnel resorted to "retaliatory" firing after two of the accused opened fire at the police after snatching their weapons. The police had then said they were also attacked with stones and sticks, resulting in injuries to two policemen. The Commission stated the police party's version is concocted.

There is an effective network of CCTV cameras in Telangana especially along the highways and it was claimed in the press conference held after the arrest of the suspects that scientific evidence played a crucial role in the detection of the crime and apprehension of offenders, Commission said.

"Some video footages of the scene of incident are produced before the Commission, which are not in seriatim and are very short clippings that appear to be sourced from primary footage. There is no explanation by the State as to why the entire footage is not placed before the Commission," the report noted.

The Commission observed that apart from the aforesaid lapses, there seems to have been a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth from emerging.