HYDERABAD: Deputy commissioner of police, Shamshabad, N. Prakash Reddy, is scheduled to appear before the commission formed by the Supreme Court to probe the alleged encounter of the four accused in the Disha rape and murder case, on Monday.
The three-member panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice V.S. Sirpurkar will summon Prakash Reddy after cross-examining the investigating officer, J Surender Reddy, which started on Saturday. The committee includes Justice Rekha Sondur Baldota, former judge of the Bombay High Court, and D.R. Karthikeyan, former CBI director.
The DCP was cross-examined in September with regard to engaging a private guest house as a safe house and use of long-range weapons like AK-47s by police escort parties.
Later, however, the then commissioner of Cyberabad police, V.C. Sajjanar had mentioned Reddy’s name numerous times in his answers. Sajjanar had said that it was upon Prakash Reddy’s request that he held press meets on the day the accused were arrested (November 29, 2019) and the day the alleged encounter took place (December 6).
Sajjanar told the commission that he was briefed about the case details by the DCP, who was in-charge of the case at that time.
“On November 29, 2019, I had been to the RGI airport to study traffic issues and received a call from the Shamshabad DCP on my way back to the camp office that the four men were apprehended at around 5.30 pm. He requested me to stop by his office and to address the media who were waiting for a long time. It was only after he briefed me about the case that I addressed the media,” he said.
The panel also asked Sajjanar about his role in the case and how he had sanctioned six long weapons to the police escorting the four men. The official said his role was confined to holding morning briefings everyday, where Prakash Reddy would update him. “Upon his request, I provided manpower, arms and ammunition,” Sajjanar told the commission.
