Hyderabad, Oct 7 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday promised in the assembly that justice will be done in the case relating to gunning down of five Muslim prisoners by police.
He told the house that a report from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to inquire into the April 7 incident is awaited.
"Let the report come. If injustice was done to anybody, the guilty will be punished," he assured Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, who raised the issue.
Five undertrials were shot dead by police on April 7 when they allegedly tried to escape from a police van near Tangutur in Nalgonda district, while being taken to a court in Hyderabad.
MIM and other Muslim groups have termed this as murders by police and have demanded strong action against the policemen involved.
Owaisi wanted the government to order a probe by a sitting or retired judge but the chief minister said since SIT was already constituted to conduct an inquiry, such a move will give a different meaning.
The MIM leader called for doing justice to the innocents. He said police officials were not expected to do justice in this case.
He said Muslim youth were killed in police custody. "These youth were not convicted and no one except court has the power to punish the guilty," he said.
Viquar Ahmed, Syed Amjad Ali, Mohammed Zakir, residents of Hyderabad, Mohammed Haneef, native of Ahmedabad, and Izhar Khan, native of Uttar Pradesh, were killed in the incident.
According to police, they were involved in killing of three policemen in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
