Hyderabad rape and murder case: AIIMS team conducts second autopsy of four accused killed in encounter; bodies handed over to kin

Hyderabad: The second autopsy on the four slain accused in the brutal rape and murder of a woman veterinarian was done by a team of forensic experts of AIIMS, Delhi at a hospital in Hyderabad, following which the bodies were handed over to their families, a top official said. [caption id=“attachment_7750401” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of policemen standing guard at the area where the four accused in the Hyderabad rape-and-murder case were killed. PTI[/caption] A separate cabin had been arranged at the Gandhi Hospital for All-India Institute of Medical Sciences team for the autopsy and the entire process was videographed, Superintendent of the state-run facility Dr P Shravan Kumar said. The Telangana High Court had on 21 December ordered the re- postmortem of the four , who were killed in an alleged encounter with police near Hyderabad on 6 December. The first post-mortem was conducted on 6 December itself at a government hospital in Mahabubnagar from where the bodies were subsequently shifted to the Gandhi Hospital. The autopsy is over. The forensic experts will be handing over their report in a sealed cover to the High Court. The bodies have been handed over to the next of kin after due identification process was done, Superintendent of the state-run facility Dr P Shravan Kumar said. A police official said two ambulances each carrying two bodies left for the native places of the deceased in Narayanpet district. Before starting the second autopsy, the AIIMS team interacted with the kin of the deceased men and recorded their statements, Kumar said. “The team first wanted to talk to the kin of the deceased. So accordingly we arranged an interaction with them. The team recorded their statements. The relatives informed the team that they would take the bodies once the process is completed,” he said. On its request, the team was provided a handicam (portable video camera) and a computer, Kumar added. The police had made elaborate security arrangements near the hospital. The bodies of the four accused had been preserved in the Gandhi Hospital as per the earlier orders of the high court after some PILs were filed alleging that the encounter was fake and amounted to extra-judicial killing. The four accused were arrested on 29 November for allegedly raping and killing the woman veterinarian and burning her body. The case triggered widespread protests across the country. Police shot the four dead in the ’encounter’ after the latter allegedly attacked them at Chattanpalli where they were taken for reconstruction of the crime scene for investigation.