Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday decided to pause the Justice VS Sirpurkar Commission’s report on the Disha ‘encounter’ case, which suggested taking legal action against the accused officials.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy directed the state government not to take any forceful steps based on the Sirpurkar Commission’s report against the police officers involved in the incident.
In November 2019, a 26-year-old veterinary doctor named ‘Disha’ was raped and murdered near Chatanpally bridge in Shadnagar. Following the incident, police arrested four suspects. During an attempt to reconstruct the crime scene, the suspects allegedly attacked the police, leading to a self-defence exchange of fire resulting in their deaths.
The Supreme Court later formed the Justice Sirpurkar Commission to probe allegations of extrajudicial killings by the police. The commission recommended legal action against the officials involved.
However, seven police officers connected to the alleged encounter challenged the report by filing individual petitions in the high court.
The court’s decision to stay the report not only provides relief to the seven officials but also to other top police officials mentioned in the report.
Additionally, the court heard petitions from former Farooqnagar tahsildar Jaravath Pandu and Shadnagar Station House Officer A Sridhar, represented by senior counsels P Sri Raghuram and K Vivek Reddy.
The case has been adjourned until July 2024. The individuals challenging the Commission’s report include Jaravath Pandu, A Sreedhar Kumar, Kocherla Ravi, Shaik Lal Madhar, Devarashetty Srikanth, Konda Narasimha Reddy, Balu Rathod, and Dharamkar Janakiram.
