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Journalism of Courage
A local court today issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Vijayawada city police commissioner, an assistant police commisioner and three other police personnel in connection with alleged custodial death of a 28-year-old person on June 14, 2002.
Holding that their acts amounted to murder of K Sreenivasa Rao alias Budda Santhan, third metropolitan magistrate D Venkatramana directed the DGP to arrest police commissioner N Surendrababu, ACP Rami Reddy, a sub-inspector and two constables and to produce them before the court on June 10.
Rao, who was arrested on June 13, 2002 for involvement in the murder of a TDP leader, was remanded to judicial custody and was to be produced before court on June 15.
On the night of June 14 the commissioner and ACP had gone to the police station to interrogate Rao, who was reported to have been killed in an ‘‘encounter’’ in wee hours of June 15. ‘‘Questioning as to how a person in Judicial custody could be interrogated without permission of the court,’’ the magistrate said in his order that the victim’s body was removed to hospital and then to the mortuary, which was ‘‘a clear case of murder’’.
