Read Time: 06 minutes

According to India Today, a delegation of Women and Transgender organisations Joint Action Committee (WT-JAC) and other human rights organisations has submitted a memorandum to the acting Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, Hyderabad seeking his immediate intervention in the case of the "suspicious disappearance" and "subsequent death" of Pallakonda Raju.

Raju is an accused in the rape and murder of rape and murder case of a 6-year-old girl in Singareni colony. After a week-long man-hunt, Raju was found dead on the railway tracks of Warangal.

The letter expressed concern over the fact Raju went missing within a week of the crime he had been accused of.

“The police had launched a ‘manhunt’ with a huge prize money to trace him and on Thursday, suddenly he was ‘found dead’ on railway tracks near Ghanpur, Jangaon district of Telangana," the letter said.

The delegation sought the court to:

1. Immediately direct the Principal Secretary, Department of Home, Telangana to halt the cremation and preserve the body of the accused, Pallakonda Raju, until further orders from the court and submit the CCTV footage of the scene of death to the court.
2. Immediately direct formation of a special team of forensic experts and autopsy surgeons from outside Telangana (preferably AIIMS), to undertake an independent post-mortem and video-graphing of the post-mortem, as per NHRC guidelines.
3. Ensure an immediate inquest of the deceased person by a judicial magistrate, under section 176 (1) (a), as per procedure established in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
4. Direct the Principal Secretary, Department of Home, Telangana to transfer the investigation into the case of the rape and murder of the 6-year-old girl to a specially constituted, independent team of senior police officials for a fair and impartial investigation, in the interests of justice.

The delegation further made the following prayers:

“Considering the extremely sensitive nature of this case, the court may kindly directly monitor all proceedings relating to the investigation of:

1. The original crime dated September 9 was when the rape and murder of the minor girl took place at Singareni colony.
2. The circumstances leading to the highly suspicious ‘disappearance’ and ‘death’ of the accused Pallakonda Raju on September 16.”

The present case is eerily similar to the 2019 extra judicial killing four persons accused of raping and murdering a veterinary doctor. Therein, the accused were taken to react the scene of the crime, when allegedly they tried to escape and hence gunned down by the police. The dlegation in the present case have submitted that extra-judicial murder will not bring justice to the victim, due process needs to be followed.

There have also been reports of politically leaders openly calling for “encounter killings” in rape cases.