NHRC To Probe Encounter After Suo Moto Cognisance

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday took suo motu cognisance of the killing of the four accused in Telangana vet’s rape and murder case in a police encounter.

The Commission said that this matter is required to be probed very carefully.

The accused – Mohammed Arif, Naveen, Shiva and Chennakeshavulu – were killed in a police encounter at Chatanpally, Shadnagar on Friday in the wee hours, between 3 am and 6 am, Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar said.

The NHRC has asked its Director General (Investigation) to immediately send a team for fact-finding on the spot investigation into the matter. The team of the Investigation Division of the Commission headed by an SSP is expected to leave immediately and submit their report at the earliest.

It said the encounter indicates that the “police personnel were not properly alert and prepared for any untoward activity” by the accused on the spot, which resulted in the death of all four.

“If the arrested persons were actually guilty, they were to be punished as per law pursuant to the directions of the competent court,” the Commission said.

It added that the death of four persons in an alleged encounter with the police personnel when they were in their custody, is a matter of concern for the Commission.

Stating that the Commission is aware that growing incidents of sexual assault and violence against the women, it said, “loss of human lives even of a person arrested by the police under law, in such circumstances, would definitely give a wrong message to the society.”

“The Commission has already expressed its view that there is lack of “Standard Operating Procedure” to immediately respond to the panic situations by the police authorities. We have been insisting upon all law enforcing agencies to keep human rights angle in their view while dealing with the persons arrested by them or being kept in their custody,” it said.

The Commission asserted that the right to life and equality before the law are the basic human rights recognised and granted by the Constitution.

The four accused were under arrest and in judicial custody. They were lodged in high-security cells at Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad.

Police said that the veterinarian was brutally raped and killed by the accused who later burned her body in the Shamshabad area on November 27. Her charred body was recovered on November 28.

(ANI)