Supreme Court Directs High Court To Consider The Hyderabad Encounter Probe Report

The Supreme Court's Bench comprising of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Hima Kohli today heard the petition regarding the Hyderabad Encounter.

The Bench remitted the matter back to the High Court, noting that the Commission has found someone guilty.

Senior Advocate Shyam Diwan had asked for the report to be kept in sealed covers. However, the Court refused the request. The Court directed that the copy of the report be shared by the Commission Secretariat.

The Commission had submitted a report against the ten police officials stating that, "After considering the entire material on record, we conclude that the deceased have not committed any offence in connection with the incident on 06.12.2019, like snatching the weapons, attempt to escape from the custody, assaulting and firing at the police party."

The Report also said that, "After considering the entire material on record, we conclude that the deceased have not committed any offence in connection with the incident on 06.12.2019, like snatching the weapons, attempt to escape from the custody, assaulting and firing at the police party."

The Report recommended that, "All the 10 police officers i.e., V. Surender, K. Narasimha Reddy, Shaik Lal Madhar, Mohammed Sirajuddin, Kocherla Ravi, K. Venkateshwarulu, S. Arvind Goud, D. Janakiram, R. Balu Rathod and D. Srikanth, are to be tried for the offences under Section 302 r/w 34 IPC, 201 r/w 302 IPC and 34 IPC, as the above discussion would show that the different acts committed by each of them were done in furtherance of common intention to kill the deceased suspects".

The Bench headed by Chief Justice had formed an Inquiry Commission headed by former judge of the Supreme Court V. S. Sirpurkar to look into the circumstances in which the four accused persons, namely, Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen, were killed in Hyderabad. A report has been submitted by the Inquiry Commission to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover.

In November 2019 a veterinarian was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered in Hyderabad. This incident led to nationwide protests.

Four men, Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen were arrested in relation to the case. In December the 4 accused were shot dead near the place where the dead body of the girl was found. The police claimed that the accused attempted to flee by snatching a firearm which they used to fire at the police personnel and in response, the police opened fire.