The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday adjourned to July 6 the hearing on a PIL seeking a CBI probe into the alleged custodial death and disappearance of 25-year-old Gade Sai Krishna, even as the state informed the court that the main accused, suspended Circle Inspector SSVV Nagaraju, had been arrested.
Appearing before a division bench, Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas told the court that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by IGP (Law & Order) M Ravi Prakash had already been constituted and that the investigation was progressing. He informed the bench that Nagaraju, the then Station House Officer of Krishnalanka Police Station, had been taken into custody and would be produced before a magistrate.
Sai Krishna's mother, Gade Vijayalakshmi, had approached the High Court alleging that her son was picked up by police near Markapuram in the first week of May and brought to Krishnalanka Police Station in Vijayawada. According to the FIR and remand report, Sai Krishna had pending non-bailable warrants in two earlier cases.
The complainant alleged that when she went to the police station in search of her son, she was threatened and denied information. She later claimed to have seen him inside the lock-up with visible injuries.
According to the SIT's investigation so far, Sai Krishna is suspected to have been illegally confined, tortured in custody and to have died between May 6 and May 8.
The case drew widespread attention after Sai Krishna's family met Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, following which the state government constituted an SIT to investigate the allegations.
The remand report of the arrested Circle Inspector reportedly states that Sai Krishna was not produced before a magistrate within the mandatory 24-hour period after being taken into custody. It also refers to witness statements indicating that he was seen at the police station during the period under investigation.
In a significant development, forensic examination reportedly found no CCTV footage in the police station's DVR system between May 1 and June 1, the period covering the alleged illegal detention.
Investigators suspect that evidence was destroyed following Sai Krishna's death and that his body was disposed of in an attempt to conceal the crime.
A case has been registered under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to wrongful confinement, murder and destruction of evidence.
With the matter now before the High Court and the main accused under arrest, the SIT continues efforts to trace Sai Krishna's body and establish the full sequence of events.
