The Supreme Court Tuesday gave another six months to the three-member inquiry commission, headed by former apex court judge V S Sirpurkar, to file a final report on the encounter killing of the four accused in the case of gang-rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana asked the lawyer appearing for the inquiry panel as to how much more time it wanted to conclude the probe.

The bench, also comprising justice Justice Surya Kant, referred to the instance of a similar panel, set up to inquire into the encounter killing of a gangster Vikas Dubey in Uttar Pradesh, and said that they had already filed the report.

"Ok. Six months," the bench added.

The Sirpurkar panel was set up on December 12, 2019, to inquire into the circumstances leading to the encounter and was to submit a report in six months.

The term of the inquiry panel has now been extended thrice.

The four accused were shot dead on NH-44 near Hyderabad -- the same highway where the charred body of a 27-year-old veterinarian was found.

The police had claimed that on November 27, 2019, the woman veterinarian was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and later found murdered.

It had said that the accused had subsequently burned the body of the woman.