Telangana lawyers' murder: SC declines plea for investigation by CBI
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 March 2021 4:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain the plea seeking an investigation by an Independent Agency into the murder of Telangana lawyer couple.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Bobde, Justice Bopanna and Justice Ramasubramanian asked the petitioner to withdraw the plea and approach the High Court with the same prayer. During the hearing, the three-judge Bench observed that the matter is pending before the Telangana High Court.
Last month, Gattu Vaman Rao and his wife PV Nagamani were hacked to death in broad daylight at Ramagiri near Ramagundam in the Peddapalli district of Telangana. The duo practiced law at the Telangana High Court in Hyderabad. In his dying declaration, the lawyer accused Kunta Srinivas, an Ex-TRS functionary of the murder. Later, Kunta Srinivas and Sivanandula Chiranjeevi were taken into the custody.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that there are 3 matters pending before the Telangana High Court including one filed by the father of the deceased.
He further added that plea is very important as it talks about the security of lawyers. "You must understand that security is always a state matter. You withdraw this and go to the High Court and make the same prayer. If you don't succeed, you come here" the bench said.
Last month, a division bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of Telangana High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the case. Before they were killed, the advocate couple had complained of harassment for filing public interest litigations.
The Bar Council of Telangana had issued a statement condemning the incident. "The country is witnessing frequent attacks on advocates and that no person can take the law into hands and resort to illegal activities. The matter shall be dealt with as per the law," it said.
On March 17, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao rejected Congress party's demand to hand over investigations to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
KCR categorically announced that his government will not hand over the case to the CBI as Telangana police was capable enough to investigate the case and bring the culprits to book at the earliest.
