From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court-appointed panel has dubbed the 2019 Disha encounter by police in Hyderabad as fake and recommended that the cops be tried for the murder of Disha’s rapists.
The encounter was hailed across the country, but Chief Justice of India N V ramana asked the High Court to try the accused cops for the crime. “There is nothing confidential. Someone has been found guilty and now the state has to look into it,” he said.
He refused to keep Justice V S Sirpurkar Commission’s report submitted in a sealed cover. The report proved that the accused in the Disha rape case were killed in an extra judicial manner.
Both the CJI and Justice Hima Kohli on the Bench insisted to make public the commission’s report since it was an “encounter” case and directed the report shared with all involved parties adn sent to the Telangana for further proceedings, specifically to try the police officers for the murder.
The inquiry report says the accused in the gangrape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad in 2019 were not trying to escape the police as claimed by the official. Concluding that the accused were killed in an extra-judicial manner, three of the four killed were minors and the police knew it at the time of the killing. The extra judicial killings were led by then Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar on December 6., 2019.
The CJI rejected a plea by senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Telangana government, to keep the report confidential. When Divan still insisted, the CJI asked what was confidential about a public hearing?
He said: “If there’s a matter regarding grave security etc we will consider, [but] this is an encounter case. The committee was appointed and has submitted a report. There’s no question of our further examining the matter, let the HC hear the matter. Ultimately some end has to be there. Without looking at the report, you can’t make submissions right?”
CJI NV Ramana has been averse to the practice of sealed covers. In this practice, the Supreme Court and sometimes lower courts accept information from government agencies in sealed envelopes which can only be accessed by the judges. In March this year, while hearing the Muzaffarpur Shelter case, the CJI questioned why the report was in a sealed cover.
The Sirpurkar Commission – comprising former SC judge Justice VS Sirpurkar and comprising former Bombay HC judge Justice Rekha Baldota and former CBI Director Karthikeyan — was set up on December 12, 2019, to inquire into the circumstances leading to the encounter of four accused in the Disha rape case, namely Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jollu Shiva, and Jollu Naveen. They were accused of rape and murder of a veterinary doctor near Shadnagar in Hyderabad in November 2019.
Just two days after arresting the accused on charges of rape and murder, the four accused were taken to the crime spot early in the morning, for allegedly “recreating the scene” and “to collect evidence.” The police claimed that the accused attacked the police and attempted to escape after seizing their weapons, and they were subsequently shot dead.
