Disha case encounter cops will be tried: Victims’ lawyer

HYDERABAD: Officials involved in the alleged encounter of four suspects in the Disha case getting booked for murder was inevitable, said the advocate representing the families of the victims.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, independent counsel Krishnamachary, advocate representing the families of Mohd. Arif, Chintakunta Chennakesavulu, Jollu Shiva and Jollu Naveen, said petitions from the previous case were pending, which would be taken into consideration at the Telangana High Court. “The Telangana High Court will prosecute the officers who will be termed as accused in the case, and proceed to the hearing,” he explained.

The report of the Supreme Court-appointed inquiry commission was made public on May 20, the day the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Telangana High Court.

The bench led by Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana, and comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli rejected submissions by senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Telangana, that the report be kept in the sealed cover. In its report, the three-member Justice V.S. Sirpurkar commission stated that it did not believe the police version of events that led to the killing of the four accused when they were taken to the crime scene in the early hours of December 6, 2019, nine days after the gang rape and murder.

The Cyberabad police picked up the four suspects from their homes in the middle of the night, a day after the veterinarian Disha’s charred remains were found under a bridge at Chatanpally on the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 28, 2019. After about a week, during the wee hours of December 6, 2019, the four were killed in an alleged ‘exchange of fire’ by the police.