Writ Petition Filed in HC Against Hyderabad Encounters, Officials Told to Preserve Bodies of Accused till Dec 9

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday directed the state government to preserve till 8pm on December 9 the bodies of the four accused in the rape and murder of a veterinarian.

The court gave the order on a representation received in the office of the Chief Justice, requesting judicial intervention into the incident, alleging it was an extra-judicial killing. The plea was filed by a group of independent activists.

The court directed that the video of the post-mortem in the form of a compact disc or a pen-drive be handed over to the Principal District Judge, Mahabubnagar, after completion of the post-mortem of all the accused.

The court ordered the Mahabubnagar Principal District Judge to receive the CD or pen drive and hand it over to the Registrar General of the High Court by Saturday evening.

“We further direct that the dead bodies of the four deceased/accused/suspects who were killed in the encounter be preserved by the State till 8:00 PM on December 9," the High Court division bench said.

All the four accused were shot dead by police on Friday during a pre-dawn exchange of fire near Hyderabad, police said. The four were arrested on November 29 for allegedly raping and killing the 25-year-old woman by smothering her and later burning her body.

The Hyderabad Police shot dead the four men after a brief encounter on Friday morning, drawing cheers from her family and people outraged over the ghastly crime.

The four accused in police custody were shot near the scene of last week's crime, said DCP N Prakash Reddy. He said the men were killed after a brief exchange of fire around 6.30am when they were taken to the site of the offence for reconstruction of the scene of the crime as part of the investigation.

Cyberabad police commissioner CV Sajjanar said the law has done its duty.

At a press conference later in the day, Sajjanar asserted that the police personnel only resorted to "retaliatory" firing after two of the accused opened fire at police after snatching weapons from them this morning.

(With PTI inputs)