Day after, the question: how 17 armed cops couldn’t subdue 5 handcuffed men

The 5-km stretch between Warangal arch and Alair town in Nalgonda is the only unpopulated stretch of the highway to Hyderabad. There’s dense vegetation on either side, making it a very lonely stretch.

It was here that five undertrials, who the police claim were linked to SIMI and other radical outfits, were gunned down Tuesday while being taken to a Hyderabad court from Warangal jail. The police said they were killed while trying to disarm the escorts and flee.

More than 24 hours later, not one person has stepped forward to say he or she heard or witnessed the shooting. The police version of the incident is already being questioned.

V S Krishna, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Forum, said Wednesday it was difficult to believe that 17 armed policemen couldn’t subdue five handcuffed undertrials. He also wondered why the police escort from the jail was 17-member strong Tuesday when it never has more than 10 policemen.

Police claimed Vikaruddin and Syed Amjad Ahmed, two of the five undertrials, wanted to relieve themselves, so their handcuffs were taken off and the bus stopped on the lonely stretch. According to police, when the two men were boarding the bus again, the other three said they too wanted to step out and their handcuffs were removed.

Police said Vikaruddin tried to snatch reserve sub-inspector Uday Bhaskar’s rifle and the remaining four too tried to overpower the policemen.

One of the suspects killed.

Krishna said: “No one will believe they had unshackled all five at the same time. And 17 policemen could not subdue five men? That too in a small confined space as a mini-bus? In this case, it appears as if they had an axe to grind and shot them in cold blood.”

K Keshava Naidu, DIG (Prisons), Warangal Range, said a heavy security escort was needed because Vikaruddin and the four others were under the S-1 category. This category, he said, is of those undertrials deemed to make attempts to escape.

“We organise security and escort accordingly. For four or five days last week, they were taken and brought back without any incident. But Tuesday morning, something happened and they did not return,” DIG Naidu said.

The escort team was requisitioned from the armed reserve at the Warangal police headquarters. The armed reserve is supposed to give a report to the prison superintendent if a prisoner under its escort escapes, has a natural death or is killed either by the escort while attempting to flee or is shot by anyone else. Prison superintendent Bhaskar said the armed reserve is yet to file its report.

Reserve sub-inspector Uday Bhaskar, who was in charge of the escort team, declined to speak to this reporter

The post-mortem examination of the bodies was conducted at the Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal by a team of four doctors over five hours. Dr Y S Raju, who heads the forensic department, said the post-mortem reports were confidential. “The reports are yet to be prepared and any information regarding these five is confidential. I cannot share any information,” Dr Raju said.

Sources said at least two bullets were recovered from the bodies — bullets were not found in three bodies and may have exited because of the close range from which they were fired inside the bus — and sent to the ballistics laboratory in Hyderabad.

Bodies of Vikaruddin Ahmed, Syed Amjad Ahmed, Dr Mohammed Hanif Khan and Mohammed Zakir were handed to their families after the post-mortem. When the families began speaking to reporters at the medical college, police blocked and led them away.

The bodies were taken in four ambulances to Hyderabad under heavy police escort. Vikaruddin’s father Mohammed Ahmed said he was not even allowed to speak to the doctors. He wanted to know the nature of injuries on his son’s body. “They said PM (post-mortem) report will be available later, that is all. I will not keep quiet. We demand a probe either by the CBI or a sitting judge,” Ahmed said.

The body of Izar Khan who belongs to Lucknow has been kept at the mortuary.

Meanwhile, calling it a planned murder, Izar Khan’s family decided to move court seeking an investigation. The family is yet to decide who will go to receive the body from Telangana.

The family was told about Izar’s death after a constable from Aminabad police station visited his house in Lucknow on Wednesday evening and handed them a copy of a fax sent by the Telangana police.

His brother Mohammad Anwar said he was falsely implicated and had no connection to SIMI.

Source:: Indian Express