SIT may take few more days to begin probe

It would take a few more days for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Telangana government to begin the probe into the killing of five undertrials by the police in Nalgonda district 12 days ago.

The prisoners, including Vikaruddin Ahmed, a youngster from Hyderabad accused of killing two policemen, were shot dead by the escort police party while bringing them from Warangal prison to Hyderabad in a mini-bus on the Warangal-Nalgonda border.

With some political parties and several rights organisations raising suspicion over the killing of the prisoners, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ordered the probe into it by a SIT six days after the encounter.

Case diary observations

The six-member SIT would be led by IGP (Personnel) Sandeep Sandilya. Khammam SP Shah Nawaz Qasim, Intelligence DSP M. Dayanand Reddy, Madhapur ACP M. Ramana Kumar and Inspectors of Hyderabad police L. Raja Venkat Reddy (Chaderghat) and S. Ravinder (Humayunnagar) are its other members.

Though six days have passed since the SIT’s formation, the probe has not yet begun. “As per the Criminal Procedure Code, the police officer investigating the encounter should first complete the case diary, then the SIT role begins,” a top police official seeking anonymity told

The Hindu .

Whatever be the contentions, arguments and versions of the Alair police of Nalgonda district, the SIT will consider the observations made in the case diary as the base for their probe. “That would be the official statement of the local investigators.

Then, each and every point mentioned in it would be cross-checked and verified,” the officer said.

Reconstruction of events

As the families of the slain prisoners described the killing as a ‘stage-managed encounter’, the SIT is planning to reconstruct the sequence of events with precise details. They would examine the mini bus in which the prisoners and the escort policemen started from Warangal central jail.

Even the steel chains and hand-cuffs used by the policemen would be examined by the SIT.

This has become pertinent due to posers from some persons questioning the veracity of the police version which suggested a hand-cuffed prisoner, Vikaruddin in this case, snatching a firearm from a constable and firing at an SI.

‘Official probing encounter required to first complete the case diary’