For representational purposes (Express Illustration)
HYDERABAD: A Sreedhar Kumar, who was the Station House officer of Shadnagar police station at the time of the rape and murder of a veterinarian in 2019 and subsequent death of four accused in the case, in an ‘encounter’, deposed before the three-member judicial commission on Wednesday.
During the examination by the counsel for the commission, Sreedhar deposed that CC cameras were installed at the police station and that they were in working condition from November 28, 2019 to December 6, 2019. He, however, said that he cannot produce the footage for the said period, as there is a back-up facility only for 10 days.
He added that during that period, he did not think the footage would be useful and that it did not occur to him preserve the footage when asked he was questioned by the Commission counsel. He also stated that J Surender Reddy, Additional DCP Rachakonda, the investigation officer for the ‘encounter’ case had formally asked him for the CCTV footage, but he had told him that footage for the said period was not available.
He deposed that when he went to apprehend the four accused persons in the murder case of the veterinarian, a large mob gathered in the village and so he brought them to Shadnagar police station. The accused were then turned over to V Surender, ACP Shadnagar, who affected the arrest. The case which was initially registered as a murder case, was later added with the charges of kidnap, rape and robbery, after recording the confession statements of the accused.
Cut and paste?
When asked about the different timings related to the arrest of the accused and recording their confession in different documents placed before the commission, he first said it due to typographical errors like copying and pasting. However, when asked how the matter could be “ copied and pasted’’, when the matter was nowhere, he said it was a mistake. When further asked how there can be a ‘copy & paste’ from a written document, he said, “ It was my mistake. I wrote as per the reference from a memo.”
