The four accused in the rape and murder of Disha fell to the bullets of Self-Loading Rifles (SLR) and AK-47 rifles during the exchange of fire with police at an agriculture field in Chatanpalli near Shadnagar during the early hours of Friday.
Highly-placed sources in the Telangana police department confirmed that the ‘special party’ was carrying the long weapons when all the four accused were taken to Chatanpalli for the reconstruction of the crime scene. Further, no bullets were recovered from the bodies of the accused during the autopsy as they were high-velocity rifle rounds. “They suffered bullet injuries on the front portion of the body and exit points were visible,” a source said.
On Friday morning, the accused, who were not handcuffed, allegedly attacked police with stones and sticks, before they snatched two ‘unlocked’ pistols from the uniformed men.
They opened fire and tried to vanish in the dark when police retaliated in self-defence. However, no policeman suffered any bullet injuries in the exchange of fire which lasted more than 15 minutes.
Speaking to The Hindu , an officer associated with the investigation of the case said that the CLUES teams on Saturday morning recovered several empty shells fired by the accused. “With the help of metal detectors, we recovered more than a dozen empty bullet shells at the place where the four accused were gunned down. Each of it was shot from the two pistols by the accused that they snatched from police,” the officer said.
Forensic evidence collected
They also collected the sticks and stones which were used by the accused — Mohammed Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Ch. Chennakeshavulu — to attack police. “Forensic experts found the accused’s fingerprints on them,” the officer said.
Arif and Chennakeshavulu were found dead holding guns in their right hands, while the other two were seen lying unarmed in the parched agriculture field barely 300 metres from the underpass and the Hyderabad-Bengaluru National highway, where Disha’s torched body was found.
All the bodies were found in the radius of 50 metres and according to Cyberabad Commissioner of Police V.C. Sajjanar, there were only 10 policemen with the accused when they were taken to the crime scene from Shadnagar ACP office in a minibus with the local police escorting them.
Meanwhile, officers said that the video-aided post-mortem examination was conducted for over four hours and a detailed report by the forensic experts will be submitted soon.
