Hyderabad Encounter: Telangana High Court Orders Second Post-Mortem Of Preserved Bodies Of 4 Accused

The Telangana High Court ordered the re-autopsy or the second post-mortem of the bodies of the four accused killed in the Hyderabad encounter on Saturday. The four men were accused of gangraping and murdering the veterinary doctor in Hyderabad last month. The bodies of the accused have been preserved in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary. The High Court has ordered the autopsy to be completed by 5 pm on Saturday. The first post-mortem was done on December 7. Bullet injuries were reported in December 7 post-mortem. The entire exercise was videographed. The four were arrested on November 29 for allegedly raping and killing the 25-year-old woman by smothering her and later burning her body.

On December 12, the Supreme Court ordered inquiry into the encounter killings of the four men accused in the gangrape and murder of a veterinarian in Telangana’s Hyderabad. An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde was hearing two public interest pleas seeking an independent probe into the deaths last week. A three-member judicial inquiry will be headed by former Supreme Court judge VS Sirpurkar. The top court says no other court or authority shall inquire into this matter until further orders of this court. “We are not saying police is guilty. There are some aspects of your version (police) that need probing. We will order probe and you should cooperate. Our enquiry is about what police did," the top court said.

During the hearing, the Telangana government had justified the encounter, saying the accused snatched two firearms and shot at a police party. "We may be desiring another probe into the police action. But we are not closing our eyes on what they (accused) did," Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde further added.

The bench, also comprising Justices SA Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, had said there are "aspects of your (Telangana) version which needed an inquiry." Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Telangana government, said no policemen received bullet injuries but got injured in the attack by the accused who we