New Delhi:
VC Sajjanar is the man of the hour. The no nonsense Police Commissioner of Cyberabad hit the headlines once again after the shocking, early morning encounter of all four accused in the Hyderabad rape and murder case on Friday. The Hyderabad 2019 is seen as the rerun of what happened in Warangal eleven years ago. Reports have emerged that show the striking resemblance between 2008 encounter and the Friday incident. In 2008, Sajjanar the then Superintendent of Police, was seen as the cop behind the sensational encounter of three acid attack accused in Warangal. The men had thrown acid on two engineering students of Kakatiya Institute of Technology in Warangal after they rejected the marriage proposals.
In 2008 also, Sajjanar had taken the accused to the scene of crime to recreate the sequence of events. The police at that time had claimed that the accused tried to attack with crude bombs. In retaliation and self-defence, the cops resorted to firing and gunned down the accused on the spot. Soon, Sajjanar became the hero of the town and people hailed him as ‘encounter cop’. According to a report by Rediff, the Warangal students had distributed sweets in college after the encounter.
The Friday incident took place around 2.30 am when the accused were taken to the site of the offence for reconstruction of the scene of the crime as part of the investigation, a senior police official said. "They (accused) snatched weapons from police and fired on police and tried to escape... police fired in retaliation in which the four accused died," a senior police official told PTI.
Two policemen were also injured, he said. The four men, all lorry workers, aged between 20 and 24, were arrested on November 29 for raping and killing the woman by smothering her and later burning her body. They were remanded to 7 days' judicial custody.’
Reacting to the killing of the four accused in the encounter, the victim's sister said they welcomed it. “We are happy. We did not expect this (killing in encounter). We thought they would be hanged through courts. We thank everyone who stood by us. With this incident people should be scared to indulge in such crimes (against women),” she told reporters.
The gang rape-and-murder triggered a nation-wide outrage with the public and lawmakers demanding speedy punishment to the perpetrators. The state government had ordered setting up of a special court (fast track) to expedite the trial.
