Telangana high court notices to Sajjanar & 10 cops, seeks replies by June 21

HYDERABAD: Telangana high court on Wednesday issued notices to Cyberabad former police commissioner VC Sajjannar and 10 policemen, asking them to file counters by June 21 in connection with a petition charging them with being responsible for the December 2019 encounter killing of four suspects at Chatanpally near Shadnagar.A bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji was hearing the petition filed by Pinjari Hussain and three family members of the deceased, seeking stringent punishment for the cops and also a compensation of ₹1 crore for each family. The four suspects were arrested and sent to jail in December 2019 in the Disha rape and murder case and later were gunned down in an encounter.The bench was also hearing a batch of PILs and petitions that were seeking action against the cops because the VS Sirpurkar Commission of Inquiry (CoI) concluded that it was a fake encounter and recommended filing of murder cases on 10 cops named in the CoI report.The Telangana Police Officers' Association approached the high court, urging it not to take into cognisance the CoI report, contending that its approach was one-sided. Senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy said the commission knew its limitations and hence made its recommendations The Supreme Court left it to the high court to deal with the report and also the pending PILs and decide on the further course of action, he said.He said the high court should leave the issue to the trial court. The PIL petitioners and several others were condemning the cops without making them parties and cases were being heard against them without putting them on notice, the senior counsel said. The bench verified the record and agreed with the counsel's contention that the cops were not issued notices. Senior counsel Vrinda Grover, who was appearing for the women's organisations seeking action against the cops in tune with the recommendation of the commission, also supported the need to notify the cops.Niranjan Reddy, in his argument, said that the trial court had got ample powers to look at areas that were left untouched by the investigators. CrPC has ample provisions that allow the relatives of the victims to file protest petitions and also put forward their grievances. The special investigation team has conducted its probe into the deaths of the four persons and filed its chargesheet before the trial court and hence the trial court should be allowed to function on its own, he said. "There is no need for any fresh probe by police at this stage as being sought by the petitioners," he said.