Murder of advocate couple: HC asks police to enslist more witnesses

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday asked the team probing the murder of advocate couple Gattu Vaman Rao and P.V. Nagamani to identify and add more eyewitnesses from among the passengers of the three buses that were present at the murder scene.

On Monday, the Ramagundam police commissioner submitted the second status report to the court on the progress of the investigation.
Referring to a mention in the report by the investigation team that five passengers of three RTC buses were enlisted as witnesses, the High Court said this will not suffice. More eyewitnesses from among the passengers should be included.

The court felt that the investigation being done by the police was progressing in the right direction and hence it was not inclined to order the hand over of the probe to the CBI.

The court said it will monitor the investigation regularly. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with two petitions on the dual murder. Of these, one was a suo motu petition and another a petition filed by G. Kishan Rao, father of Vaman Rao, seeking a CBI probe.

The status report said that out of the seven main accused, the confessional statements of the first three — Kunta Srinivas, Chiranjeevi, Kumar — were recorded under Section 164 Criminal Procedure Code and a requisition has been made before the magistrate for recording the statements of the remaining accused.

The report said 21 eyewitnesses had been examined and the statements of 19 were recorded. CCTV and video recordings pertaining to the murder had been forwarded to the forensic laboratory and its report will be available within four weeks. Police protection has been extended to the eyewitnesses who sought police protection.

Drivers and conductors of three RTC buses and five passengers travelling by the three buses were recorded. The court responded to this by saying more witnesses from among the passengers need be identified and statements obtained from them.

Advocate-General B.S. Prasad informed the court that the chargesheet will be filed after receipt of the FSL report. When counsel for Kishan Rao expressed doubts over the fairness of the investigation by the local police and sought a CBI probe, the court said it doesn’t want to jeopardise the case and observed that handing over of the investigation to another agency right now would result in a phenomenal loss of time. Asking the petitioner to keep faith in the court, it was pointed out that the court had suo motu taken up the matter and decided to monitor the case immediately after the murders.

The Ramangundam police was directed to file the next status report by April 7 and the case was adjourned to the same day for further hearing.