The Telangana High Court on Friday directed authorities to preserve, till December 9, the bodies of all the four accused gunned down by police near Shadnagar town during an investigation into a woman veterinarian’s gangrape and murder.

The orders were issued after an emergency hearing late on Friday evening.

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Various human rights and women’s organisations had made a representation at the office of the Chief Justice, requesting judicial intervention into what they called “extra-judicial killings” of the four accused.

The matter will come up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice RS Chauhan on December 9.

Hours after the encounter, the bodies of the four youth were shifted to a government-run hospital in Mahabubnagar, where the autopsy was done. The bodies were preserved in the hospital’s mortuary.

Advocate General BS Prasad informed the High Court that a team of forensic experts from Hyderabad’s Gandhi Hospital conducted the autopsy and the entire process was videographed. The court directed that the video be handed over to the Mahabubnagar district judge, who, in turn, will submit the same to the bench.

The petition, signed by as many as 15 organisations, alleged that the encounter was carried out in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

They sought autopsy by experts from New Delhi or from states other than Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. They also sought orders to constitute an independent court-monitored committee to examine FIRs registered in the case, records of government vehicles used by all police officers engaged in the encounter, their call details records and the preservation of evidentiary material.

The groups also demand that all police personnel who participated in the killing of four accused be immediately arrested and prosecuted. They said the investigation into this case should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since the Telangana Police cannot be trusted to be fair in the matter.

However, the Telangana Police have maintained that the accused tried to attack the cops by snatching guns and firing at them. The police in self-defence fired back resulting in the death of the four men.

Amid aspersions being cast on the alleged encounter, Cyberabad Police Chief VC Sajjanar at a press briefing on Friday evening revealed the details of the early morning incident.

He said the police interrogated the accused on December 4 and 5 after taking them into custody. Today morning, the men were brought to the crime spot to recreate the November 27 incident as part of the investigation.

The accused then attacked the police with sticks and then snatched the weapons from them and started firing, the top cop claimed.

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.

On the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) taking suo motu cognizance of the encounter, the Cyberabad Police Chief said they will answer to whoever takes cognizance, the state government, the NHRC and to all concerned.

All four accused in the rape and murder of woman veterinarian in Hyderabad were killed in an encounter with the police in the wee hours of Friday when they were trying to escape during the recreation of the crime at the same spot where the woman’s body was found.

(With inputs from IANS)