Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the state government to furnish documentary evidence on whether it followed the Supreme Court guidelines and norms, which must be strictly followed in all deaths and grievous injuries in police encounters, while dealing with a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs) filed against the encounter killings of four accused persons of raping and brutal murder of Disha.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghave-ndra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, reminiscing the Supreme Court guidelines related to police encounters, which were declared as law under Article 141 of the Constitu-tion, asked B.S Prasad, Advocate-General (AG) of the state, to submit relevant documents by Thursday before the court.
The bench also directed to give copies of the documents to Desai Prakash Reddy, senior counsel and amicus curie appointed by the Bench to assist the court in this case.
The bench inquired about whether an FIR was registered against policemen who were involved in the encounter, under section 302 of Indian Penal Code.
Citing the judgment of the apex court in the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) versus the state of Maharashtra case, wherein one of the requirements to be followed was that an FIR ought to be registered against police personnel who were part of the encou-nter and to have them surrender their weapons for forensic and ballistic analysis.
The HC bench repeatedly asked the AG whether an FIR was lodged or not. How-ever, the AG submitted that while a case has been registered, it was not mandatory to register an FIR against cops, as per earlier directions of the full bench of the Telangana High Court.
Dismissing the AG’s contention on filing of cases against the policemen being mandatory in encounter cases, the High Court bench asked him to read out guidelines of the Supreme Court, and sought the documents supporting his point of view.
B.S. Prasad informed the court that the same issue was seized before the Supreme Court, which adjourned the cases to Wednesday. He requested the court to adjourn the till Thursday (December 12). The AG also submitted that Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel in Supreme Court, would be representing the state government in the case.
Agreeing to adjourn the case till December 12, the High Court bench directed the state to preserve the bodies of the four accused till Friday, December 13.
n Page 2: Shift bodies of the accused in AC vehicles
