Andhra Pradesh high court directs SIT to submit report on Sai Krishna case

Vijayawada: The AP high court on Wednesday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to submit a status report on the investigation being carried out into the alleged missing case of Gade Sai Krishna from Krishna Lanka police station.

The high court was hearing a PIL seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged missing and custodial killing of Sai Krishna.The advocate general, Dammalapati Srinivas, informed the high court that six persons have been arraigned as accused in the case and five of them were arrested. He said that circle inspector (CI) SSVV Nagaraju, the main accused in the case, was arrested and the trial court granted custody with conditions.The SIT moved the high court challenging the conditions imposed by the trial court, and the high court granted his custody from July 9 till 16 in partial relaxation of trial court conditions. Srinivas further informed the bench that the SIT is planning to challenge some of the conditions retained by the high court in the apex court.The president of Society for Protection of Constitutional Rights, G Srinivasa Rao, moved the high court seeking to hand over the alleged custodial killing of Sai Krishna to the CBI.

Arguing on his behalf, senior counsel Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy said that the police killed Sai Krishna and disposed of his body.Sudhakar Reddy further said that the DGP and the Vijayawada police commissioner told the high court on June 15, while responding to the habeas corpus petition filed by the mother of Sai Krishna, that they do not know the whereabouts of Sai Krishna and sought time to produce him before the court.However, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state govt to probe the case, stated in its remand report that the task force police took Sai Krishna into custody on May 6. This shows that the DGP and police commissioner are involved in the case and the investigation under the supervision of the DGP cannot be impartial, he said.Objecting to the allegations levelled against the DGP, Srinivas said that the govt pleader submitted the details given by the then station house officer (SHO) Nagaraju, the accused in the case. Considering the arguments on both sides, the high court bench headed by chief justice Lisa Gill and justice Challa Gunaranjan directed the SIT to submit a status report in a sealed cover and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.