SC to directly monitor probe into Sai Krishna custodial death

A plea demanded a probe into senior police officers over the alleged illegal detention and custodial killing of Sai Krishna, as well as the destruction of evidence.

Amaravati: The Supreme Court has decided to directly oversee the investigation into the alleged custodial torture and death of Gade Sai Krishna by the Andhra Pradesh Police in Vijayawada.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Augustine George Masih, and Sandeep Mehta heard a petition on Wednesday, September 23, by Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) MP Maddila Gurumoorthy. The plea demanded a probe into senior police officers over the alleged illegal detention and custodial killing of Sai Krishna, as well as the destruction of evidence.

Gurumoorthy’s plea challenged an Andhra Pradesh High Court order that halted proceedings on his private complaint in a Vijayawada magistrate court. In the original complaint, Gurumoorthy sought an inquiry into top police officials, including Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta, NTR District Police Commissioner SV Rajashekhara Babu, and Additional CP K Manasa, for their alleged roles in Sai Krishna’s custodial death and evidence destruction.

The High Court stayed these proceedings on August 13 after ACP Manasa disputed the magistrate’s decision to record witness statements.

The Supreme Court bench has stayed all related proceedings in the Andhra Pradesh High Court and directed that all case records be submitted in a sealed cover by September 30, Deccan Chronicle reported.

The bench reportedly said it was concerning that Sai Krishna was never produced before a magistrate after being taken into custody. The court also flagged the delay in registering a first information report (FIR) over his disappearance, the missing CCTV footage from the Krishnalanka police station, and the failure to trace his body.

Former Additional Advocate General and YSRCP State General Secretary Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy said the apex court’s intervention in the custodial death case was a scathing indictment of the state’s police functioning. 

What police said

According to police, Sai Krishna, against whom non-bailable warrants (NBWs) were allegedly pending, was brought to Krishna Lanka police station from Markapuram in the first week of May.

Upon learning that Sai Krishna had been apprehended, his mother, Gade Vijaya Lakshmi, went to the police station and found him in the “lock-up with visible fatal injuries”.

As per the remand report, Lakshmi stated that she had “witnessed her son in the police station and even heard his cries, including seeing him in an unconscious state with his legs tied”.

The case had drawn massive uproar in Andhra Pradesh after Krishna’s mother had accused former Vijayawada Krishna Lanka police inspector SSVV Nagaraju of torturing her son to death and then cremating his body without the knowledge of family members.

“She also came to know that the deceased was brutally assaulted by the accused in the police station,” it said.