Telangana Encounter: Supreme Court agrees to hear the PIL seeking probe on December 11

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on December 11, the plea seeking an independent probe into the Telangana Encounter of December 6.

The PIL filed by Advocate GS Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav was mentioned for urgent listing today before the Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant.

CJI Bobde remarked that the Telangana High Court was already seized of the matter but the Counsel pressed for the PIL to be heard by the Apex Court citing that the relief sought was different from the aspect taken up by the High Court.

While agreeing to hear the matter on Wednesday, the Apex Court also said that it will see what issues are being looked into by the High Court.

The Telangana Encounter case has drawn criticism from various quarters, with the National Human Rights Commission taking cognizance of the same. On  Friday evening, the Telangana High Court also intervened to direct that the video of the post mortem of the accused, being conducted at the Government District Hospital, be sent to the Principal District Judge at Mahboobnagar.

As per reports, the four men accused of having raped and murdered 26 years of ‘Disha’ were taken to the scene of the crime around 60 Km from Hyderabad “for a re-construction as part of the investigation” in the early hours of December 6. According to the police personnel, one of them signaled to the others, possibly to escape and they further tried to snatch weapons from the police. At this point, the police fired at the accused persons, leading to their death.

Two PILs were subsequently moved in the Supreme Court, one by Advocates Mani and Yadav, and another by Advocate ML Sharma. The PILs have registered an objection to the extra-judicial killing of the four accused in the Telangana rape and murder case in the when the guilt of the accused was yet to be proved.

The petition filed by Mani and Kumar emphasises that while no one will support persons involved in the gang rape and murder of innocent women, it is unfortunate that the police has taken the law into their own hands and carried out the encounter, “without conducting a proper investigation, collecting evidences, framing charges and without bringing them before the court for punishment.” The petitioners have added that such fake encounter killing was conducted only to divert the public reaction, possible to protect the real culprits.

The petitioners have raised apprehension that there is a chance that evidence against the police in the encounter killing of the four accused may be tampered with. Therefore, it has been urged that the Supreme Court restrain the police officers involved in the encounter from performing their duties until and independent investigation into the matter is completed. Further, it is requested that the PIL may be heard on an urgent basis to guard against the possibility that material evidence in the case may be tampered with or destroyed.

On allied concerns, Sharma’s PIL calls for the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising of retired Supreme Court judges to conduce a probe with the aid of the CBI under Court supervision, into actions of the police officials involved as well as “leaders and media channels.” Additionally, Sharma has sought for action to be directed against Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachan and Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal “for provocation [and] pressuring police for extrajudicial killing of arrested persons in police custody without concluding of trial.” Moreover, Sharma has also sought for the grant of Rs 20 lakhs to the family members of the deceased persons.