'Encounter' killing: Telangana HC demands documentary evidence, adjourns hearing to Dec 12

By Newsmeter Network  Published on  9 Dec 2019 11:02 AM GMT
Encounter killing: Telangana HC demands documentary evidence, adjourns hearing to Dec 12

Hyderabad: Posing serious questions over the encounter killing of four accused/suspects in the brutal rape and killing of Disha, Telangana High Court has directed the State Government to produce documentary evidence of having followed the Supreme Court guidelines in such encounter cases. The Court has also further directed the State Government to preserve the dead bodies of the four deceased / accused till Deecember 13.

The Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy passed orders to this effect on Monday while hearing the PIL petition on this issue. Several prominent activists and journalists had written a letter to Telangana High Court on these encounter/custodial killings and the Court had converted this letter into a PIL.

At the outset of the hearing, when the Advocate General, B.S. Prasad, was about to begin his submissions, the Bench stopped him and posed a question: "The Hon'ble Supreme Court has in the PUCL case clearly laid down certain guidelines in cases of encounter killings. Has the Government followed those guidelines? Have you registered FIR in this case as the guidelines prescribed? If yes, please submit documentary

proof", said the Chief Justice. The AG responded saying the guidelines do not mandate that the FIR should be registered against the police

officers. The CJ read out the portion of the judgment that clearly stated that these guidelines are to be treated as law of the land under Article 141 of the Constitution.

The AG requested the Bench that since Supreme Court has also agreed to hear the urgent petition on Wednesday, that is, December 11, the hearing in the present case be adjourned to Thursday. Senior SC advocate and former Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi would be appearing in this case on behalf of the State Government, he informed.

The Bench said it will wait for what the Supreme Court decides on Wednesday and will hear the case on Thursday. It however directed the Government to produce documentary proof of having followed the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. It also directed that the bodies of four deceased/accused to be preserved till Friday. If there is any difficulty in doing so at Mahabubnagar District hospital, the bodies must be transported to Gandhi Hospital by air-conditioned ambulance, the Bench directed. The case will be heard on December 12.

High drama in HC over Hyderabad encounter

Dramatic moments witnessed at the High Court of Telangana on Monday morning when the petitions filed by a people's organisation came up for hearing. An argument broke between the advocates representing the people's organizations and other members of the legal fraternity.

The advocates were cornered on how they could take the side of the accused who had raped and killed a woman in a brutal way. The members of people's organizations gave back saying it was their right to appeal.

As the issue appeared to go beyond control, the Court intervened and asked both parties to leave the Court hall till they calmed down.

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