HYDERABAD: Acting on a spate of complaints and doubts over the alleged encounter of rapists of the 26-year-old veterinary doctor, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Telangana High Court have issued notices to the Cyberabad police. The bodies of the four accused would not be cremated till Monday, though their postmortem was completed by Friday night.
The NHRC, headed by Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant, has taken suo motu cognisance of the objections raised by several people, including some women organisations to the manner in which the four rape accused were shot dead by the police. The commission has sent a team of its investigation officers to Hyderabad and the team, which went to the encounter site, is expected to submit its report by Monday.
A delegation of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) has issued an open letter expressed doubts over the veracity of the encounter story of the police. “The association office bearers Rathi Rao (president), Meena Tiwari (general secretary) and others have voiced concern over the custodial deaths by police in the name of handing out instant gender justice to women.
The association has expressed doubts over the manner the dead bodies of the accused lay on the ground while holding weapons in their hands. “How can the four accused overpower and snatch away weapons from a battery of policemen? This appears to be a clear case of police bumping them off to satisfy public anger,” the women activists said.
The same letter also was taken note of by the High Court which issued notices to the cops directing them not to cremate the bodies till Monday. A senior judge of High Court, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao, heard a petition by the activists who alleged that it was a fake encounter and referred the matter to Chief Justice R.S. Chauhan.
The High Court ordered for video recording of the post-mortem of the accused bodies. The cops were asked to furnish full details of the depositions of the accused while they were in police custody for two days—4 and 5 December. The weapons seized from the accused and the bullets fired too are preserved for the High Court probe.
There are some voices that criticised the encounter of the rapists, but an overwhelming majority of people are congratulating the cops for killing them. Those who object to the encounter basically point out the differential treatment by police to accused of different rape cases. “Why cannot they (police) show equal response to all rape victims?” Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi leader Manda Krishna asked.
He and a few other social justice champions questioned the delay or inaction of police in cases where the victims were either scheduled castes, tribes or voiceless. Civil rights groups opposed outright the encounter which they said is nothing but police taking the law into their hands. “The police are only supposed to bring the guilty to the justice, but not deliver the justice,” said the Telangana civil rights committee.
Ironically, a majority of those related to victims of rape and murder in the last few years demanded that they should be handed a similar justice from the police. “My daughter, too, was gang raped and murdered 15 years ago by some miscreants who are powerful; the killers of my daughter, too, should be killed in encounter,” said the mother of Pratyusha who died in 2003.
The Cyberabad police continued to receive bouquets and congratulatory message from public all over the world. The police commissioner office has been receiving a stream of visitors who are shaking hands and taking selfies with the cops. As the Parliament, too, by and large endorsed the encounter, there is a general feeling of pride among the cops.
Mother of Nirbhaya, who sought similar justice for her daughter, has vindicated the act of encounter by the Cyberabad police. Of course, the ruling TRS is trying to attribute credit for the encounter to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Several TRS workers put up hoardings, hailing KCR for this instant justice to the rape victim.