No Action Against Seven Cops Accused in Disha Encounter: Telangana HC Tells government

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued interim orders directing the state government not to take any coercive steps against the seven police officers, who reportedly participated in the alleged Disha encounter. The court was against initiating steps based on the enquiry report submitted by the Justice V.S. Sirpurkar Commission, which was constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the alleged incident at Chattanpally village of Farooqnagar mandal on December 6, 2019. The police claimed that it was an exchange of fire while civil liberties organizations and others alleged that it was cold-blooded killing by the police. Hence, the Supreme Court constituted the commission for inquiry, whose report clearly mentioned that it was an encounter. While the panel sought action against the police officers, seven of 10 officers approached the High Court challenging the commission’s report. Even the then tahsildar Jaravath Pandu and A. Sridhar, the then station officer of Shadnagar, approached the High Court taking exception to the remarks made against them by the commission.

Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy heard the batch of petitions and on Wednesday issued interim orders directing the government not to take coercive steps against officers who had approached the High Court. These orders will continue till the next hearing in July.

Senior counsels H. Venugopal, Hemandranath Reddy and B. Rachana Reddy, appearing for the police officers, argued that the commission was constituted to probe into the issue and submit the report. But it had crossed its limitations by directly suggesting action against the police officers. How can the commission assume the role of a jurisdictional authority and decide the issue, the senior counsels wondered.

Further, the judge also issued interim suspension orders on the inquiry report of the commission of Jaravath Pandu and A. Sridhar. The interim suspension orders will be applicable on these two persons only on the ground that the commission, without issuing notices to them and without hearing them, made remarks in the report submitted by it, which was a violation of the principle of natural justice.