Supreme Court proposes ex-top court judge to probe Hyderabad encounter

The Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed to appoint a former judge of the top court to enquire into the encounter of four accused persons in the sensational gangrape and murder case of a 27-year-old veterinarian in Telangana.

Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, said the court had initially asked former Supreme Court judge PV Reddi, but he had declined to be involved. The top court emphasised on an independent enquiry into the case.

"We are conscious of the fact that the Telangana High Court had taken note of it," a bench headed by Justice Bobde, that also comprised of justices SA Nazeer and Sanjeev Khanna, said, adding that the SC only wanted a Delhi-based former judge of the top court to enquire into the matter.

The next hearing has been proposed for Thursday, in which PILs demanding independent probe into the incident will be taken up.

Earlier this week, petitioner GS Mani had filed a plea in the top court, asking an urgent hearing on the legality of the encounter. He also sought registration of an FIR against the cops present during the encounter, saying that the SC guidelines, issued in 2014, were not followed. Another petition was filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, that sought the formation of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.

On December 6, the Cyberabad police took the four persons accused of raping and burning the body of a woman to the scene of the crime for reconstruction as part of the investigation. The Police Commissioner said the accused snatched their weapons and fired on police and hence, in self-defence, the police fired back, in which the accused were killed.

"The four accused had been in police custody for ten days. We had interrogated all of them. When they confessed to the crime, we took them to the site where the incident occurred to reconstruct the scene. When we reached the spot, the accused managed to snatch our guns and attacked us. You can see that the accused are still lying there with the weapons. As a result, we had to engage in an encounter with them in which they were shot dead," Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar said during a press conference.