Disha encounter case: Telangana HC hears pleas for FIRs against 10 cops

Hyderabad: On Monday, the Telangana High Court heard petitions requesting orders to register FIRs against the 10 police officers involved in the encounter of the four accused in the Disha case.

What is the Disha case encounter?

The Division Bench, Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, was adjudicating a batch of PILs on the Disha case, filed by Women’s Rights and People’s Organisation, seeking a judicial probe into the encounter at Chatanpalli village, Shadnagar mandal in Mahbubnagar on December 6, 2019. In the encounter, four persons were gunned down by the police who were accused of the rape and murder of a girl named Disha (name changed).

Sirpurkar commission report

The Disha Commission was later constituted to probe the encounter. It was headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice VS Sirpurkar. The Sirpurkar Commission report, released on January 28, 2022, recommended the registration of FIRs against all 10 police officers for participating in a ‘fake encounter’ of the four accused.

Consequently, the 10 police officers mentioned in the report filed individual writ petitions in the High Court, seeking a stay on the report.

Justice Bollam Reddy’s order on Disha case

The senior counsel appearing for the police officers informed the Division Bench on Monday that the Single Judge Bench comprising Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy passed stay orders in the batch of writ petitions filed by the police officers.

On May 1, Justice Bollam Reddy stayed the Sirpurkar commission report on the grounds that the police officers were not given a hearing before the report was finalised. The bench said that the report was finalised ignoring the evidence of eyewitnesses and not taking on record crucial evidence placed by the police officers.

The judge, after hearing all the police officers passed orders, directed the State government not to take any coercive steps against all the 10 police officers and the said order continues to be in vogue.

‘Club all cases together’

When the Chief Justice Bench was informed about the previous stay orders, CJ Alok Aradhe questioned Vrinda Grover about the impact of the order on the present PILs in the High Court.

The PILs by the Women’s Rights and People’s Organisation were being represented by senior counsel, Supreme Court of India, Vrinda Grover. Vrinda Grover informed that in the batch of writ petitions filed by the 10 police officers, the petitioner, whom she was arguing for, was not made a party and she sought an adjournment to argue on the above aspect.

The senior counsel appearing for the police officers informed the Division Bench that the entire contention of Vrinda Grover was to implement the Sirpurkar commission report.

“As the CJ Bench is hearing the batch of cases, the stay orders passed by Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy is pivotal for further adjudication of the cases,” he argued.

After hearing the contentions of Vrinda Grover and the senior counsel representing the police officers, CJ Alok Aradhe queried advocate general A Sudershan Reddy about his contention on this issue. Sudershan Reddy informed the court that it would be appropriate if all the matters were clubbed together and heard because there is a challenge to report.

The Division Bench adjourned the batch of PILs to September 30 for further hearing and directed the registry to place all the writ petitions and the orders passed by the single judge in the writ petitions filed by the police officers for further hearing.