The videographer of Clues Team of Hyderabad city police failed to follow his instructions while recording the topography and other evidence of the alleged encounter spot at Chatanpally on December 6, 2019, and he had realised it only after he received the copies of the videographs, said J Surender Reddy, DCP, Rachakonda SOT who was appointed to probe the incident.
“I had instructed the videographer to record the position of the dead bodies, scene of the place. Until I received the videographs on December 10, 2019, I was under the impression that the former has acted according to my instructions, but not,” he told the three-member commission of inquiry, appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the Disha gang rape and murder case and the aftermath, on Saturday.
Mr. Reddy submitted the two USB flash drives containing 25 videographs and 51 photographs of the alleged encounter spot. However, the SC panel members expressed disappointment over the duration of the videos submitted before them as the majority of the clippings were only of a few seconds.
“Did it not give you the impression that the videos are too short and some editing has been done. And reasons for not getting a continuous recording” Bombay High Court’s former judge Rekha Sondur Baldota asked the IO. Mr. Reddy murmured and said the submitted videos show the topography of the spot.
The panel further asked why videos do not show the topography and they were limited to the cordoned area, and did it not occur to him to record the point from where the police party had opened fire at the accused, the place where panchs stood, the embankments on the spot should have been recorded for proper investigation?
“Yes, it occurred to me, but I was giving instructions to the officers for managing the mob gathered on the spot, as it was disturbing the investigation,” he said. Was your job to manage the mob or investigate?, the members asked, for which Mr. Reddy replied ‘investigate’.
“We hardly see mob around the spot in the video clippings. It is at a distance on the highway and near the highway, so how could the mob disturb you?” they questioned. Mr. Reddy told the commission that the mob was present on the spot, but the videographer did not cover them.
Further, the investigating officer was asked whether he instructed the videographer and photographer to cover the path through which the accused, police party and panchs approached the scene of the offence. Mr. Reddy was also asked whether he did not consider it necessary to cover the spot from which Dishas’s articles were recovered, for which he replied ‘it was not covered by the videographer and photographers.’
According to one version, the whole incident was sparked at that spot? “Go home and think on this question and answer it on Monday,” Justice V S Sirpurkar informally told Mr. Reddy.
