Hyderabad vet rape-murder: Telangana HC orders second autopsy of four slain accused

Forensic experts collect evidence from the spot where police shot dead four accused in the rape-and-murder case of a 26-year-old woman veterinarian in Hyderabad, (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak)

The Telangana High Court Saturday directed re-postmortem of the bodies of the four accused who were killed in a police ‘encounter’ in connection with the gangrape and murder of a 26-year-old woman veterinarian in Hyderabad last month.

The court directed Telangana’s Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) to request the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi to constitute a medical team with three expert forensic specialists to conduct the second postmortem on December 23.

The Gandhi hospital superintendent, Shravan Kumar, informed the court that the bodies were partly decomposed. This is the reason why the court has directed autopsy to be conducted by December 23. They have to submit the report with their findings to the Registrar General of the High Court as soon as it is ready.

At present, the bodies of the accused are preserved in the state-run Gandhi Hospital, as ordered earlier by the high court. The court had passed the direction after some PILs were filed alleging extra-judicial killing of the men and claiming it was a fake encounter among others.

On the day the four accused were gunned down by the police at Chattanpali, December 6, the postmortem examination was conducted following the Supreme Court’s guidelines. On November 29, the four accused were arrested for allegedly committing rape and killing the woman and later burning her body.