IPS officer Sajjanar appears before Hyderabad encounter probe panel; To be questioned on October 7

Former Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar appeared before the Justice Sirpurkar commission on Monday. The senior IPS officer was asked to attend the probe again on Thursday.

The apex court-appointed panel is investigating the police “encounter killing” of the four men accused of rape-murder of a young veterinarian in Hyderabad in December 2019.

About 10 Cyberabad cops who were present in the encounter incident would be questioned later this month.

Sajjanar was then hailed by the public as a hero for the “swift justice delivered by the Telangana cops.” In a reshuffle recently, the K Chandrasekhar Rao government has posted him as the Managing Director of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation.

The Supreme Court had constituted the three-member panel headed by former SC judge Justice VS Sirpurkar, days after the encounter. The incident created a sensation nationwide and was challenged by civil liberties activists as “extra-judicial killings.”

Though Sajjanar attended the proceedings on Monday, as summoned by the panel, his questioning could not be taken up as the recording of some witnesses statements took time.

The commission was originally required to submit its report by August last year but its work was largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. On 3 August, its term was extended again by another six months by the apex court which observed that the probe has been “going on and on.”

The inquiry panel's proceedings are taking place in hybrid form, with both physical and virtual appearances because of the ongoing pandemic.

While the commission members are logging in from Nagpur, Pune, New Delhi; all the witnesses, advocates and persons served with notices, others are appearing physically in the commission's office in the Telangana high court premises.

In the last two months, the commission recorded the statements of Rachakonda commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, who headed a state government's probe into the encounter, few police officials, families of the four accused, relatives of the murdered girl and some witnesses.

The Case

Mohammed alias Arif (26) a lorry driver and A-1, and three others – Gollu Shiva, Gollu Naveen and Ch Chennakesavulu – all in twenties and hailing from Maktal in south Telangana were shot dead by the Cyberabad police, just over a week after the gruesome rape-murder on 27-28 November night at Shamshabad on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway. The suspects were arrested on 29 November and were produced before a court.

In the pre-dawn hours of 6 December 2019, the men were taken to the Chatanpally underpass where the body of Disha, as the vet was later referred to, was found in half burnt condition.

Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar had claimed that the accused, taken there to recover the victim’s mobile and other belongings, snatched two weapons and started firing at the police team.

“We warned them to surrender but the accused did not heed, forcing us to open fire. They were later found dead with bullet injuries,” Sajjanar had stated.

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