Hyderabad: A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday made it clear that it will not order a CBI probe at this stage into the Seshachalam encounter in which 20 woodcutters belonging to Tamil Nadu were killed on April 7, 2015.

The bench was dealing with petitions filed by Chilaka Sudhakar, general secretary of the Civil Liberties Committee, and Muniammal, wife of Sashi Kumar, seeking to book police personnel involved in the encounter under Section 302 of the IPC (murder).

The bench refused the request of Vrinda Grover, counsel for the victims’ families, to record statements of Balachandran, Sekhar, and Elango, eyewitness in the case under Section 164 of CrPC before any magistrate in Tamil Nadu.

These eyewitnesses had said that they had given the slip to the police from a bus in which the cops shifted 20 persons and eliminated them in the name of encounter after subjected to brutal torture.

Mr V. Raghunath, counsel for the Civil Liberties told the court that the SIT was not an independent agency and a CBI probe was necessary as there was involvement of high profile and influential people in the case.

Reacting to the submissions, the bench said, “We are satisfied with the ongoing probe by the SIT and the court is itself monitoring the probe and there is no need for CBI probe at this stage.” The Bench posted the case to August 3 and directed the SIT to inform the court about the progress of the investigation on the day.

HC to give order on affiliation row

Justice A. Ramalingeswara Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday said that he would give his orders on Tuesday at 4 pm on a batch of petitions by the managements of various private engineering colleges challenging the decision of the JNTUH in rejecting grant of affiliation to them and reducing the intake capacity sanctioned by the AICTE for 2015-16.

Lockup death report sought

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the principal secretary of Telangana home department and superintendent of police of Nizamabad district to file counter affidavits on a plea seeking probe into the lock-up death of Shaik Hyder.

When the Bench enquired about the injuries received by the victim while jumping the wall, Special counsel for the Telangana government, Mr A. Sanjiv Kumar replied that he had sustained a fracture in his left leg.

Stating that it was surprising that the victim had died from a leg injury, the Bench said, “We are unable to accept and digest your version.”

After perusing the medical reports, the Bench stated: “The medical report states the victim had multiple injuries on his body. You are claiming that the victim succumbed to death during treatment for a fracture. A young man died for a cycle.”