The Telangana High Court on Saturday directed re-postmortem of the bodies of four accused in the case of gang-rape and murder of a 26-year-old woman veterinarian in Hyderabad. Telangana police ‘encountered’ the four accused last month on December 6.

The bodies of the four accused are preserved in the state-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad as per earlier orders of the High Court, after some PILs were filed alleging extra-judicial killing of the men and claiming it was a fake encounter among others.

The High Court directed the state government to request AIIMS Delhi to constitute a medical team with three expert forensic specialists to conduct a second postmortem of the bodies of the four men. The court directed Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital to get the autopsy done before 5 pm on December 23 and hand over the bodies to the families.

A division bench of Chief Justice RS Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy asked the authorities to videograph the autopsy and submit the same to the court.

Gandhi Hospital Superintendent P Shravan Kumar personally appeared before the court and informed the bench that the bodies may get totally decomposed in five days.

The four accused were arrested on November 29 for allegedly raping and killing the woman veterinarian by smothering her and later burning her body.

A week later, they were gunned down by police at Chattanpalli when they were taken to the scene of crime near the culvert, under which the charred remains of the 25-year old veterinarian were found on November 28, to recover her phone, wrist watch and others pertaining to the case.

Families of the four accused too had approached the Supreme Court, seeking registration of murder case against the police officers involved.

Alleging that the youth were killed in a stage-managed gunfight, the families sought investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or some other agency. They also sought direction to Telangana government to pay them Rs 50 lakh compensation each.

The families filed a common writ petition under the provisions of Article 32 of the Constitution that enables individuals to seek redressal for the violation of their fundamental rights.

The petition asked the court to call for all the police records before and after the “encounter”.

A petition urged the apex court that the independent investigation agency must be directed in accordance with the guidelines laid down in connection with investigation (the PUCL vs State of Maharashtra) in fake encounter killing.

Petitioners GS Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav sought directions for the registration of an FIR and then an investigation by the CBI, SIT, CID or team of police officers from other state to conduct the probe into the encounter.

The petition alleged that it was a stage-managed encounter to shield the alleged lapses committed by police, which led to the commission of the gruesome offense of rape and murder.

On December 12, the Supreme Court, through an order, set up an inquiry commission led by former apex court judge Justice (retd) VS Sirpurkar, retired Bombay High Court judge Rekha Baldota and retired CBI Director DR Karthikeyan, to probe the circumstances of the “encounter” of the four accused in the case. The apex court ruled that commission would have to complete its investigation within six months. It also appointed advocate K. Parameshwar counsel for the Commission.

Earlier, on December 6, in a shocking development in Hyderabad veterinarian’s rape and murder case, all four accused were killed when they were trying to escape during investigations at the same spot where the woman’s body was found, the police said this morning.

The young woman’s rape and murder on November 27 had triggered protests across the nation after her body which was burnt, was found near Hyderabad.

The four men, Mohammed (26), Jollu Shiva (20), Jollu Naveen (20) and Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu (20) had been taken to the scene of the crime at 3 am for a reconstruction as part of investigations, the police said.