Hyderabad

08 December 2019 21:20 IST

Arif put the blame on the other three, while they said he provoked them: police

The four accused in the gang-rape and murder of the 27-year-old veterinarian were learnt to have given contradictory confessions to the investigating officers about the offence they had committed on November 27.

The source said that all the four accused — Mohammed Arif (26), Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Ch. Chennakeshavulu, all aged about 20 — presented their own versions.

They were taken into custody by police on December 4 for interrogation and in the wee hours of December 6, the accused were gunned down in an exchange of fire with the police.

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Kept apart

A senior police officer associated with the investigation of the Disha case said that all the accused were kept apart from one another at an ‘undisclosed’ location in Cyberabad.

“All of them were scared and were telling different versions about how they planned the offence, sexually assaulted and killed the vet. The confessions were not at all matching,” said the officer.

Except for Arif, other three maintained that the former asked them to consume alcohol and hatched a conspiracy to rape the vet when they first saw her parking her two-wheeler near the Tondupally toll gate of Outer Ring Road on the evening of November 27.

“While Arif pushed the blame on the other three, the rest claimed that it was Arif who provoked them to commit the offence,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

Reconstruction

Speaking to The Hindu, another officer said that even when the accused were taken to the Chattanpalli underpass in the early hours of Friday for reconstruction of the crime scene, they all had different versions.

“One said that they carried the victim in hands after parking their lorry on the highway, while another said they took a detour and went under the bridge in the lorry,” said a police officer.

Mismatch

Even when the police asked them where they buried the victim’s mobile phone, power bank and her watch, they were showing different directions.

Between 5.45 a.m. and 6.15 a.m. on Friday, all the four accused attacked the police with sticks and stones before snatching two pistols and opening fire. Police claimed they returned the fire, in which the accused were killed. The exchange of fire lasted more than 15 minutes.