The court directed Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital to get the autopsy done by a team of forensic experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), New Delhi, before 5 p.m. on December 23 and hand over the bodies to the families.

A division bench of Chief Justice R.S. Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy asked the authorities to videograph the autopsy and submit the same to the court.

The court passed the orders on a PIL filed by social activist K. Sajaya and others. The PIL, filed in the Supreme Court, was forwarded to the High Court to take a call on the bodies.

Gandhi Hospital Superintendent P. Shravan Kumar personally appeared before the court and informed the bench that the bodies may get totally decomposed in five days.

The court also directed Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the alleged encounter, to seize the weapons used in the encounter and send the same to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).

The SIT was also asked to collect FIR, case diary and other records in the case and submit the same to Judicial Commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the encounter.

Mohammed Arif (26), Jollu Shiva (20), Jollu Naveen (20) and Chintakuntla Chennakeshavulu (20), all accused in the gang-rape and murder of a veterinary doctor who were killed by police at Chatanpally near Shadnagar town, about 50 km from Hyderabad. Police claimed that the accused attacked the police team escorting them, snatched their weapons and opened fire, but all four were killed in the retaliatory fire.

The police had taken them to reconstruct the crime scene at Chatanpally, where they had allegedly burnt the body of the victim on the night of November 27 after committing the gang-rape at Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The gruesome rape and murder had triggered national outrage with demands for immediate death penalty to the perpetrators.

While the killing of the accused in the alleged encounter was hailed by a section of people, the families of the deceased and human rights groups alleged that the police took law into its hands. Terming this as extra-judicial killings, some groups had moved the Supreme Court.

The apex court appointed a judicial commission to enquire into the episode and submit a report within six months.

The first autopsy on the bodies of the accused was conducted on December 6 at government-run hospital in Mahabubnagar. The bodies were later shifted to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad for preservation.