‘My statement is incorrect’, panel on Disha case told

Signed on all papers without reading as they threatened me: SOT head constable

“Mee officers e chesyaru, nuvu enta? (When your officers have signed, who are you to refuse?)

This is what the officials of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had told the Cyberabad Special Operations Team’s head constable Mohammed Sirajuddin when he resisted to sign on his ‘incorrect’ statement recorded by the NHRC in December 2019.

During his deposition before the Supreme Court-constituted three-member commission to inquire into the alleged encounter killings of the four accused in the rape and murder of Disha by Telangana police on December 6, 2019, Mr. Sirajuddin, who was part of the armed escort, told the panel on Friday that he had put his signature on all the papers of his statement without reading as they ‘threatened’ him to sign.

The officer went on to say that even his statement recorded by the investigating officer and Rachakonda Police Commissionerate’s DCP (SOT) J. Surender Reddy was incorrect. “I had not stated many recitals in the statement recorded by the IO. Maximum of this is incorrect,” he told the panel.

Again referring to his statement to the NHRC, the Commission asked, “You have specifically stated that nobody gave command to fire. What do you say?”

“It is incorrect. Without the officer’s instruction, I would not have opened fire,” Mr. Sirajuddin said.

Earlier, the panel asked the officer whether he knew what was meant by ‘interrogated’, did anyone attempt to catch the accused alive, in which position he was when he opened fire, did all the four accused run together at the same time and could he see the accused when he opened fire.

Then the Commission asked if he was aware that the firing done by him would have endangered the lives of the accused. “I fire with the intention of diverting their attention and apprehending them. I did not fire with the intention of harming them. They are also accused in a gang rape and murder, my intention was to apprehend them,” the officer responded.

Later in the day, SOT Sub-Inspector Kocherla Ravi, who too opened fire with his SLR, was examined by the three-member panel. He was asked what kind of weapons he received and how he rated himself as a marksman.

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