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The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday, July 7, has permitted the state to allow the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to take Krishnalanka police Circle Inspector (CI) Nagaraju into police custody to reconstruct the scene of the alleged custodial murder.
Justice Maheswara Rao modified a lower court's order which granted the SIT custody of the accused from July 9 to July 16. While the lower court had confined the interrogation strictly to the premises of the Central Prison in Rajamahendravaram, the High Court ruled that such a restriction "may put hurdles” on the investigators.
Public prosecutor M Lakshmi Narayana argued that the SIT could not conduct a fair and effective investigation or locate Sai Krishna's corpse without taking the accused to the scene of the offense in Vijayawada.
CI Suda Suresh Veera Venkata Nagaraju (53), former station head of the Krishna Lanka Police Station in Vijayawada, has been accused of the custodial torture and murder of 25-year-old Sai Krishna.
Sai Krishna was apprehended at Markapur on May 6, under the requisition of CI Nagaraju. However, Sai Krishna was never produced before a magistrate.
The CCTV footage and hard disks at the Krishna Lanka Police Station were manipulated and deleted for the period from May 1 to June 1. The prosecution argued that this was to cover up the alleged illegal detention and killing.
Representing Nagaraju, advocate Challa Ajay Kumar argued that the police department was conspiring to ‘frame’ the former inspector. The defense also raised concerns over a severe threat to Nagaraju’s life during interrogation outside prison.
The court ordered the SIT to videograph every movement of the accused during transit from Rajamahendravaram to Vijayawada and back, and submit the unedited footage to the magistrate by July 17.
