On 21 December, the Telangana High Court directed to regulate a second postmodern for the bodies of the four accused killed in the police encounter, in the Disha gang-rape case.
A Divisional Bench, headed by Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, addressed the government of Telangana to conduct a second autopsy by constituting a panel of three senior-most forensic doctors of AIIMS. They further directed that the autopsy be video-recorded and handed over to Registrar General of High Court by 5 p.m. on Monday.
The three senior doctors were advised to express an independent view based on the evidence collected by them, individually. Further, the court ordered the Chief of the Special Investigation Team to investigate into the encounter killings and to seize all material objects such as case diary, movement register of the police officials, including the arms and ammunition used by Cyberabad police officers in the encounter, their mobile phones, call data records related to the encounter.
“The weapons used by police personnel in the exchange of fire should be seized and sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad for ballistic analysis,” the order said.
The Advocate General of Telangana argued that the bodies of the four were already subjected to post-mortem as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court and hence there was no necessity for passing any order for a re-post-mortem.
However, the amicus curiae D Prakash Reddy contended that the bodies were preserved under the directions of the High Court to consider the necessity of second post-mortem and that the Supreme Court also endorsed it.
On November 29, the four accused Chenthakunta Chennakeshavulu, Mohammed Arif, Jollu Naveen, and Jolly Shiva were accused to gang-rape and murder a Hyderabad Veterinary doctor. Later, on December 6, they were gunned down by police when they were taken to the site of offense for the reconstruction of the crime scene as part of the investigation. The police claimed to encounter the four accused when they tried to flee the crime scene.
Earlier, on 19 December, the relatives of the four accused appealed to the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the encounter and also sought a compensation of Rs 50 Lakh each.
