Hyderabad: Over a month after the Supreme Court set up a commission to inquire into the encounter of four men accused of raping and murdering a veterinarian, the three-member team, led by former SC judge VS Sirpurkar, reached Hyderabad on Monday.
The other members of the team are retired Bombay HC judge Rekha Sharma Baldote and former CBI director Karthikeyan. Sources said the members met the Telangana High Court Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and discussed the details of the case.
It is still unclear whether the Telangana government has made necessary arrangements for the panel members’ office and accommodation facilities.
Opposition leaders have alleged the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led government is not cooperating with the commission on the case. The apex court had directed the state government to bear all expenses of the commission and asked police officers to cooperate with the panel members.
A petition was filed before the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the alleged extra-judicial killings of four rape and murder suspects on December 6, following which the apex court set up a panel and directed the latter to file a report in six months.
The petition alleged that it was a stage-managed encounter to shield the alleged lapses committed by police. The Supreme Court had also stayed proceedings initiated by Telangana High Court and National Human Rights Commission into the case. The top court had said that no other court should entertain any plea pertaining to the case.
Recently, a forensic team from AIIMS, Delhi, had conducted a second autopsy on the four bodies of the suspects. It will soon submit a complete report to the state and Supreme Court.
The judicial commission has to obtain the report along with an interrogation of the police officers involved in the case, families of the veterinarian and the four men.