Protracted inquiry into encounter killings of Disha rape-murder accused irks Supreme Court

HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court Tuesday expressed surprise over the Justice Sirpurkar Commission not being able to complete the inquiry into the December 2019 encounter killings by Hyderabad police of four persons, accused of rape and murder of a veterinary doctor, and granted last extension of six months to it to complete the SC-assigned task.
Appearing for the commission, headed by Justice (retd) V S Sirpurkar, advocate K Parameshwar informed the court that extensive work has been done and that the inquiry panel needed another six months to complete the probe, which was assigned to it in January 2020 when the SC had framed its terms of reference.
A bench of CJI NV Ramana and Justice Surya Kant told the counsel that the inquiry into the UP encounter killings was set up much after the Telangana incident and that the commission has already submitted its report. “Why does the commission need to examine 116 witnesses? Anyway, we are granting a final six month extension to complete the inquiry,” the bench said.
On November 28, 2019, a young veterinary doctor was raped, murdered and her body was burned. The incident led to huge uproar in Hyderabad as well as in other parts of the country. Four persons were arrested in connection with the crime. Immediately after their arrest, hundreds of people gathered and had demanded custody of the arrested persons to deliver justice.
The SC had set up the commission of inquiry (CoI) headed by Justice Sirpurkar on December 12, 2019. In its order it had said, “We are of the considered view that an inquiry commission needs to be constituted for inquiring into the circumstances in which the four accused persons, namely, Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen, were killed in Hyderabad on December 6, 2019.” The other members of the CoI were former Bombay high court judge RP Sondurbaldota and former CBI director DR Karthikeyan. SC had fixed their remunerations at Rs 1.5 lakh per sitting for Justice Sirpurkar and Rs 1 lakh for other members. In contrast, the SC had on July 22 last year set up a commission of inquiry headed by Justice (retd) BS Chauhan and comprising former Allahabad HC Judge Sashi Kant Aggarwal and former UP DGP, KL Gupta, to inquire into the killings of eight policemen and subsequent encounter killings of gangster Vikas Dubey and five of his associates.
Since the encounters took place in remote rural areas, the Justice Chauhan Commission was required to visit all the places and meet the witnesses. Despite the pandemic and other impediments, the commission submitted its report to the SC and UP government in eight months (in April this year).
In contrast, the Justice Sirpurkar Commission was granted its first six month extension on July 24 last year and another six month extension on January 29 this year. If the commission utilises the entirety of the six month extension granted on Tuesday, then it would complete two years to complete the inquiry assigned to it by the SC.