Hyderabad: The deposition of Vasam Surender, ACP of Shadnagar when the alleged encounter in the Disha case took place, ended on Tuesday with 497 questions.
The three-member panel formed by the Supreme Court to probe the killing of the four accused in the Disha case found ambiguities in the answers furnished by Vasam Surender, now with the CID.
The postmortem examination (PME) of the four accused who were killed in the encounter were conducted by a team of doctors headed by Dr T. Krupal Singh, professor, head of department of forensic medicine and toxicology, Gandhi Hospital.
The commission asked Vasam Surender whether he had asked Dr Singh to preserve the tissue samples and to forward them to the Forensic Science Laboratory for DNA profiling. Vasam Surender replied that he had done so, and that Dr Singh told him that he had preserved the samples at the Government Hospital, Mahbubnagar.
About the follow-up reports, Vasam Surender said that he had deputed police constable Venkataiah of Shadnagar and he did not know about it.
Stating mental health and tension as reasons, the official told the commission that he had never faced a Supreme Court panel before and that he was feeling stressed. He was seen taking restroom breaks every 45 minutes or so. His cross-examination ended at 3.45 pm on Tuesday.
The panel earlier questioned him about the cross-firing at Chatanpally during the alleged ‘crime scene reconstruction’ on the morning of December 6, 2019, to which Vasam Surender said that he could not answer properly as he had sand/dust particles in his eyes at that time.
He was asked about the statement he signed off to the NHRC and the discrepancies in the same, to which he said that it was late in the night and that they had threatened him saying they would file a report against him.
What he said
HIghlights from the deposition of Vasam Surender, ACP of Shadnagar when the alleged Disha case encounter occurred on December 6, 2019
Did not furnish open-firing details in his FIR. He said that it is not an encyclopedia, and all details need not be stated.
Told the panel that he was under pressure and threatened by the NHRC team, who had given him 10 photocopies of the scene sketch and asked him to mark the positions at various timings.
Mentioned that there was a 100-feet distance between the accused men and the police officials during the firing.
Denied meeting then-Cyberabad commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, as per his reports by the NHRC.
Did not know whether the injured policemen were taken to hospital in a stretcher or carried by others due to ‘tension’.
Confirmed the identity of the victim as per the conversation with her sister and CCTV evidence of a woman walking on the road towards the parked scooty.
Identified semen stains by “seeing them, with my experience” and without sending them to FSL. He confirmed the Disha rape by blood stains and semen stains found on the chunni of the victim at Chatanpally and undergarments found near Tondupally toll plaza.
