Shady replies of witness irk Disha encounter probe panel

HYDERABAD: Witnesses continue to give evasive and unsatisfactory replies to the three-member panel formed by the Supreme Court to probe the alleged encounter killings of the four accused in the Disha rape and murder case.

The panel continued to cross-examine the then ACP of Shadnagar, V. Surender, who is currently posted in the CID, on Friday. The official and his team escorted the four accused men (A1 to A4) — Mohammed Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Ch. Chennakesavulu - to Ravi Guest House, the safe house they were kept until they were taken for the scene reconstruction at Chatanpally on December 6.

The panel asked the official, who was the investigation officer (IO), when they reached the guest house at about 1 am from Cherlapally prison, why did he not meet them for interrogation until 10 am on the next day. The officer replied that the assistant IO had made them fill the interrogation form at night. The panel frowned upon and said it took just about half an hour to fill that up and why was there such a long gap.

There were further discrepancies in statements and he told the panel that his statement given to the NHRC was incorrect. When the panel asked why he signed it, he said there was a dispute and argument and he ended up signing the report without reading it. His deposition on Friday ended with 179 questions and will further continue on Saturday.

Earlier on Thursday, the then ACP was questioned about the ‘mistakes’ in the remand case diary, which says that owner of the lorry, Patolla Srinivas Reddy, brought the four accused men to the police station. He told the panel that it was the SHO of Shadnagar, A. Sridhar Kumar, who arrested the four accused and due to a ‘copy-paste’ mistake, it appeared that lorry owner, P. Srinivasa Reddy, had brought the accused to the Shadnagar police station in the remand case diary.