The four accused in the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian were gunned down in an early morning exchange of fire, after two of the accused snatched pistols from the police party who had brought them to the scene of crime for collection of further evidence.
The bodies of the four were found close to each other—within a radius of 50 meters. Police teams who reached the place prevented the swelling crowd from entering the agriculture fields where the four bodies were lying.
However, the crowds were in a mood to celebrate. They started sloganeering, hailing the police commissioner, the police department and the government for “quick delivery of justice”. From atop the bridge they showered flower petals on the police vehicles. Men burst crackers, women distributed sweets waving the Tricolour. The slogans of ‘police zindabad‘ and ‘nyayam jargindi‘, meaning justice is done, rent the air.
While a large number of people in the district (where the four accused belong to) are jubilant over the killings, several opined that the families could have been allowed to meet their wards one last time before what happened early Friday morning.
“Take me to the spot where my husband was killed and shoot me down too. We were married only for a year and now I do not want to live without him,” cried the pregnant wife of one of the accused who was killed in the Hyderabad ‘encounter’ in Chatanpally area early Friday morning. Unable to digest what has happened to her life, she said it was absolutely “not fair.”
His mother, visibly shattered and angry, added: “But they should have given us some time. We were told we would be able to meet him after 14 days of arrest. This was only the eighth day. Had someone told us they would be killed, they could have informed us, we would at least have met him before he died. You could have kept them in jail. Fed them dog food, but did you have to kill them?”
The family members of all the four accused in the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian, who were shot dead, are shell shocked.
While a large number of people in the district (where the four accused belong to) are jubilant over the killings, several opined that the families could have been allowed to meet their wards one last time before what happened early Friday morning.
Mother of the prime accused was inconsolable when media reached out to her Friday morning. “I have lost my son. What do you want me to say?” the woman asked. She said it was her son’s fault but now he is gone forever.
“Look at what has happened to us. Our son is lost. What will the people of the village say? We are very poor people. We do daily wage labour. We leave our son’s fate to god. I curse the friends he found for himself,” she said, weeping inconsolably.
Father of another accused wondered why the police did not handover such punishment to rapists and murderers in the past. “Why was only my son and three others killed like this?” he asked. Echoing similar views, the father of another accused too asked why he was not allowed to meet his son.
Later in the afternoon, family members left for the hospital to receive the bodies after postmortem examination.
Meanwhile, the father of the victim responded that true justice was impossible as they have lost their daughter. “But today’s incident has given us some relief and brought the pain down a bit. We still have to move on. We have not got much time to think about what all has happened to our family in the last one week,” he said.