A fact-finding team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has arrived in Hyderabad to investigate the killing of the four men — accused of rape and murder of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad — in an alleged encounter by the police early on Friday.

The team will first visit the encounter spot at Chatanpally near Shadnagar town, about 50 km from Hyderabad, where the police gunned down the accused and then go to Mahbubnagar Government hospital where the bodies of the four men have been preserved after autopsy late Friday.

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Sources quoted by IANS said the team will inspect the scene of the ‘encounter’ for an on-the-spot investigation. It is likely to gather details of the police officers involved.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday took suo motu cognizance of the killing of the accused in the case in a police encounter.

The NHRC had asked its Director General (Investigation) to immediately send a team for a fact-finding on-the-spot investigation into the matter.

The NHRC statement further said that the incident clearly indicates that the cops were neither alert nor prepared for any untoward activity.

“The deceased had been arrested by the police during the investigation and a judgment in the matter by the competent court was yet to be pronounced. If the arrested persons were actually guilty, they were to be punished as per law pursuant to the directions of the competent court,” it said.

In a major development, all four accused in the rape and murder of woman veterinarian in Hyderabad were killed in an encounter with the police when they were trying to escape during the recreation of the crime at the same spot where the woman’s body was found.

Later on Friday evening, the Telangana Police revealed the details of the early morning incident at a press briefing.

Amid aspersions being cast on the alleged encounter, Cyberabad Police Chief VC Sajjanar said: “The law has done its duty”.

He said that the men were brought to the crime spot to recreate the November 27 incident as part of the investigation, where the accused attacked the police with sticks and then snatched the weapons from them and started firing.

Sajjanar further claimed the police warned the accused and asked them to surrender but they continued to fire. Then we opened fire and they were killed in the encounter, he said.

The police suspect the accused to have been involved in many other cases in Karnataka, for which an investigation has been initiated.

“The accused had previous crime records. We will probe into their past crimes. There were instances of rape and burning cases in the past in Karnataka and Maharashtra. We are suspecting the hand of these four accused in such incidents,” Sajjannar said.

The 27-year-old woman veterinary doctor was on November 27 gangraped and murdered near the Tondupally toll plaza in Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad and her body was dumped and burnt 25 km away at the Chatanpally Bridge in the Ranga Reddy district, sending shockwaves across the nation.

Meanwhile, a petition was filed in Supreme Court on Saturday seeking registration of an FIR, investigation and action against the police personnel involved in encounter of the four accused.

Advocates GS Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav approached the top court claiming its 2014 guidelines were not followed.

Another petition was filed seeking Supreme Court-appointed and monitored SIT into the Hyderabad encounter case.

The petition filed by advocate ML Sharma also sought action against Jaya Bachchan and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal “for supporting extra-judicial killings”.